National Treasure - Review

Man, I love Nicolas Cage! I don't know what it is, but just the way he delivers every single line is so strange, that it super entertaining to watch. As for National Treasure the film, it's fun. Searching for clues and going on a large scavenger hunt being pursued by a group that also wants what you are looking for and are willing to kill you to do it, it's a situation seen in many films, but it's a fun one for sure. I like to think of this film as Pirates of the Caribbean mixed with Indiana Jones and... Nicolas Cage. Pirates of the Caribbean because of the camera work, the score and of course it is produced by the same man so it has the same feeling to a film like that. Indiana Jones because Ben Gates (Cage) is very knowledgeable about history and searches for clues to track down ancient artifacts. Instead of digging in the middle of Egypt, we are exploring treasure centered around the founding fathers of the United States. With that premise, I believe Nicolas Cage was the only actor who could have played this part. Now I know that I am going to sound very familiar to Doug Walker in his review of this film in his Disneycember series, but I agree with him 100%. Nicolas Cage can pull off the perfect balance of humor and seriousness for a character like this. Characters who believe in something crazy and nobody believes them are hard characters to pull off. They can either play them pretentious in which they act like everyone else can't understand them because they are too smart, or they can play the desperation angle which in my opinion can get boring extremely quickly. Ben Gates knows how crazy his plan is but doesn't care what people think of him. He flat out asks people if they are going to help him, and if not, then so be it. However, like Doug Walker pointed out, "He isn't a stick in the mud either. He's still a little cooky." He still brings that strange Nicolas Cage presence to the role which is always fun to watch. As for the actual dialogue though, sometimes it warrants some laughs out loud, others it warrants some cringes, even for a movie like this. Overall, if you a fan of Indiana Jones, adventure treasure hunts or... Nicolas Cage, then I'd say check it out. Not a bad movie.