National Treasure: Book of Secrets
December 24th, 2007
It makes me wonder about the general state of professional movie reviewers when the film Transformers gets a positive reception from a wide group of reviewers yet National Treasure gets panned. I’m not sure why it is that reviewers seem to hate Nicolas Cage so much.
Actually the good thing about it is that I don’t really care, and the box office doesn’t seem to care either.
Surprisingly enough every once and a while I like to go to the movies and enjoy a pop corn film that doesn’t examine the human condition and the existentialism of life. That’s right, as shocking as it may seem a cool scene on top of an Olmec platform that is rigged to balance so that if everyone were to rush to one side they would all topple off to the death is something that I’m pretty happy to see.
In fact I pretty much enjoyed all of Book of Secrets, the plot was interesting enough and had a couple of little nuggets in it that I didn’t previously know such as there being more than one Statue of Liberty and the story behind the Resolute desks. I always enjoy Cage’s films, maybe not Snake Eyes, yeah actually Snake Eyes is one of the only Cage films I can point to that I don’t like. I don’t hate it either mind you, I can watch it on TV but I wouldn’t rent it or buy it.
There were some pretty cool action sequences, some clever ideas and some scenes that would not be out of place in an actual good Tomb Raider film and maybe a non-geriatric Indiana Jones film (to be fair and even the Tomb Raider films have their place and an older Indiana Jones may still prove entertaining!). The film is about American history and in Australia we often knee jerk hate a film that is heavy in American nationalism, but I mean it is an American film and there is one scene that does poke a little fun at Americans.
So the thing is, if you enjoy a bit of action, some Dan Brown/Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider type stuff and don’t mind American history then ignore the critics and go see Book of Secrets, preferably at an independent cinema.
I think you can do a lot worse.
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Categories: Movies | Tags: Book of Secrets, Movies, National Treasure, Nicolas Cage
Who cares what these ‘critics’ think! I liked the film; it seemed to keep my attention for the entire time. Of course I loved the scenes filmed in London! Oh it was like being at home
Bottom line is, customers like you and I are the REAL critics…
Ivan’s last blog post..Do ?banks? not trust ?banks??
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I tend to like Nic Cage’s films, too.
This is the second National Treasure film, isn’t it? I have a National Treasure film on DVD, but this one crept up on me, I had no idea there was a sequel…
although it’s clearly franchise material
John’s last blog post..A Massage for Midwinter
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Ivan - that’s the thing about the commercial side of the movie industry I guess, money talks, bullshit walks.
If people want to see a movie about a guy with a flaming skull and motorbike then to hell with the critics.
Don’t get me wrong either I love a well done deep and meaningful arty film. I love them but i also can enjoy a light and fluffy pop corn flick.
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Hey there John, yeah and it’s not a bad sequel either - possibly better than the first. I knew it was coming but they didn’t really promote it that much here in Australia (until recently).
The end of the Book of Secrets points very heavily at another film!
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