It seems that there’s an ongoing struggle for the consumer dollar between the few smart, well-made movies and the seemingly endless well of total pabulum (sadly, it seems that the latter is winning out). It’s refreshing, then, to be able to find a middle ground in Nicolas Cage’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets, a delightfully absurd historical adventure that’s as fun as it is absurd.
Cage is Ben Gates, an overgrown Eagle Scout who takes Indiana Jones’ gig and paints it red, white and blue. In National Treasure and this, its sequel, Gates is as concerned with the majesty of American history as he is with finding riches. When the name of his great grandfather is implicated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Gates is set off on a new adventure that includes finding a secret book of U.S. Presidents’ secrets that can clear his name. Along the way, he stumbles across a side-quest to find an ancient golden city.
There are plenty of gaps in Book of Secrets’ logic – the more you think about it, the more the transition from “search to clear granddad’s name” to “find a golden city” seems mishandled – but as you watch the movie, you can’t help but shrug it off with a chuckle. Cage and his costars (Jon Voight and Justin Bartha chief among them) make the movie so darn likeable, and director Jon Turteltaub keeps the action so well paced that it’s easy to look past its greater misgivings and just have fun. Anyone for thirds?
Rating: * * * of 5