National Treasure
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Harvey Keitel, John Voight Diane Kruger, Sean Bean
Directed By: Jon Turteltaub
Rated: PG (violence and grave desecration)

Nick Cage makes my skin crawl. I think that I hate everything about him. His
existential acting style is best suited for the underrated, under-watched 
Bringing Out The Dead (1999). He's also got a Tobey Maguire like earnestness 
without Tobey Maguire's charisma, acting ability or soul. So why the heck do I
like his movies so much? 8MM, Gone in 60 Seconds (and I even hate car movies),
The Rock... and now National Treasure. I can't get enough of 'em, they're fun
with an intellectual "feel". I'll tell you what it is, it's subliminal messages.

Dan Brown and Umberto Echo, eat you're hearts out, well, not really. National
Treasure is a historical thriller liberally basing itself on (lemme see [random
secret society generator]) Ah here we go, the legend of Knights Templar. In the
film, during The Crusades, some Christian Knights came across the great 
treasures of Egypt beneath Solomon's Temple. Realizing that this treasure was
too big for one man, king or country they took it upon themselves to guard it
and formed a secret society.  Knowing that Europeans are inherently evil (and
smelly) the treasure was brought o The Colonies and was hidden... well. Various
puzzles, riddles, clues maps, pipes and eyeglasses were left to show the way.
Our founding fathers knew about it, Washington and Franklin (Masons) guarded
its secret to the end.. Too close to the end as it turned out... The last 
person to have any clues died before he could pass on the only remaining hint
to the treasure... almost. 

Benjamin Franklin Gates's (Nicholas Cage) great great great (keep going until
you hit the revolution) grandfather was the man to receive the hint, and the
Grates family has searched for the treasure ever since riddled with shame and
ridicule. Benjamin, with the help of the entrepreneurial Ian Howe (Sean Bean)
is close; he's on the treasure's tale. From the surviving the Artic Circle to
stealing the Declaration of Independence, (and hell a little grave desecration,
why not? Its archeology!) He's just inches away from realizing the family dream.

But, don't be to hasty... The FBI (led by The Wolf: Harvey Keitel) doesn't take
too kindly to folks swiping the D of I (as the kids call it) oh, and remember
the nice guy writing the checks, Ian Howe? Well, turns out he's not so nice. To
top it all off there's Ben's twin soul, the head of the national archives and
antagonistic love interest Dr. Abigail Chase (Dian Kruger) to mix it up a bit.
[ as it turns out Abigail was one of Franklin's pen names back in the day ] 

The acting is a little, disjointed (again with Cage's existentialism) but it
extends to everyone, Sean Bean who generally plays these passionate characters
can't quite seem to get a foothold. The comedy is mostly sarcasm, which is
great, but it feels as if it was put in after the fact. The tepid romance 
brewing between Cage and Kruger was "magical"... Overall, don't overanalyze 
this one and you'll have a good time, it's fast paced, lots of action and 
you'll feel smarter after seeing it (just don't believe the "history" too much).

Templars, Masons, secrete codes and hidden treasures! To really enjoy it you'll
need to read between the fnords. I've got it! Nick Cage is Illuminati, no,
wait. Well.. maybe. In all Rites, I have to give this film 23 stars. 

National Treasure opens its all seeing eye Friday 11/12 everywhere.

By: David Kerr
Detroit Buzz Staff Film Critic