National Treasure

Pfflbt. What's the point of renting a Sean Bean film and seeing only what a big waste of time it was for him? It's not really "his" film but he's the main villain, so that smarmy, sultry swagger should be front and center. I'm guessing he was required to hold back, this being a Disney film. In fact, everyone's holding back including the screenwriter and the star, Nicolas Cage. The plot is intriguing, historically patriotic (which is great for the kids watching), and kinda funny, but it moves too fast and glosses over big chunks of history -- such as telling the history of the Freemasons in about 15 seconds. (Also, why would a Freemason give secret data to a non-Mason? Isn't that grounds for something more horrible than dismissal?) As you can guess, the main gist of the tale is finding THE secret of the Freemasons. It's a treasure hunt complete with clues, clever deductions and skeptics. Certainly fun to watch the solution unfold, with or without a consistent plot, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find it. If anything stands out, it's Diane Kruger (her German accent is adeptly explained within seconds of her appearance). Her natural, empathetic acting is a bonus in this sort of girl-tags-along-and-becomes-girlfriend role. One has to wonder why she was so bland in Troy.

year: 2004
length: 131 min.
rating: 2.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368891/combined