Review of National Treasure

NATIONAL TREASURE (3 outta 5 stars) After hearing some of the initial reviews I was expecting something of a train wreck here. Actually, the movie is not bad at all... in a cheesy kind of Saturday afternoon time-killing way. Some of the actions of the characters strain credibility at times... but if you just sit back and let the plot play out it's all quite entertaining. A pair of eccentric treasure hunters pick up a female ally along the way as they try to beat a rich bad man at finding the greatest cache of treasure of all time. Nicolas Cage gives an effortlessly engaging lead performance. His male and female sidekicks (Diane Kruger and Justin Bartha) play off him quite well. The main villain (Sean Bean) is a more low-key bad guy than we tend to see in movies these days... he doesn't go on and on ranting and raving and screaming to prove how bad he is... he just proves it quite matter-of-factly through his actions. Jon Voigt and Harvey Keitel do alright in a couple of minor roles that don't do much for their acting cred but probably gave their bank accounts a boost. It didn't even strike me until the very end that this was indeed a Disney MOVIE... one very much like the adventure movies they used to put out in the 50s. I was also pleasantly surprised that there were less dumb action stunts than I expected. The two major stunt scenes in the film (a car chase and a stairway cave-in) were pretty un-inspired... the movie wisely concentrates more on plot and dialogue.