National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Directed by Jon Turtletaub. Written by Marianne Wibberley and Cormac Wibberley. Release Date: December 21, 2007. Country of Production: United States of America. Key Cast: Nicolas Cage (Ben Gates), Jon Voight (Patrick Gates), Diane Kruger (Abigail Chase), Ed Harris (Mitch Wilkinson), Justin Bartha (Riley Poole), Helen Mirren (Emily Appleton), Harvey Keitel (Sadusky).

The first National Treasure came out of the hype surrounding the success of The Da Vinci Code. It seemed that Hollywood was looking for more conspiracy theory movies. So the Wibberleys popped out a script (these were the lovely writers who brought us such films as The Shaggy Dog and Bad Boys II).

Yet, in my opinion, The Da Vinci Code worked so well because it dealt with the history of countries that seem full of “mystery” to an American audience. The integration of the Freemasons and the Knights Templar, along with Biblical legend and art history caused the story to feel “rich.” Because the time periods of these aforementioned societies had variety of unreliable historical sources, these conspiracies seem to hold more weight. Who knew what really happened during the First Crusade? Dan Brown invented (or derived) these complex ideas that maybe...possibly...could have happened.

The original National Treasure was hokey. The history seemed more ridiculous than that of Code because it was American. We are living in an age of information technology; an age where conspiracies have no room to be born and conspiracies of the past are being disproved every day. America is too young to have enough semi-believable historical conspiracies to carry an entire film. So, in Hollywood tradition, they made two.

But, let me tell you, I saw the first National Treasure and laughed. I laughed at every line Nicolas Cage delivered. I laughed at how much it wanted to be the love child of Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible. I laughed every time someone said, “Dude,” and “Declaration of Independence” in the same sentence. I believed the movie to be one of the worst movies of the year.

And when the sequel was announced, I found myself asking several questions: Who liked this movie? Who could have possibly taken this movie seriously? Who liked this movie? And more importantly, WHO LIKED THIS MOVIE?

The sequel was vastly disappointing. There was the bad acting and ridiculous story lines from the first installment, but without the charm. The lines were more serious, John's Voight's hair was more out-of-control, and Justin Barha still made me want to give him a good pop on the head. Yet I couldn't help but feeling dragged into the film. It was like the Wibberleys kidnapped me for 124 minutes. They took the first film and dehydrated it.

I visited the George Washington Masonic Memorial a few days before seeing the film. The second scene of National Treasure: Book of Secrets was shot inside the Masonic Memorial, in the Auditorium and Theater (it’s the room where Ed Harris stands up and announces the existence of the half-burned document). A Master Mason gave a tour of the Memorial and the meeting halls. When my tour group arrived at the Auditorium, he told us that National Treasure 2 was filmed here, and that the Masons had a surge of popularity because of the movie. He also said that while they were filming, Nicolas Cage would not come out of his trailer and acted like a “big prick.”

That was the most valuable information I’ve ever received on a memorial tour.

Although I’m always thankful for a new reason to make fun of Nicolas Cage, the movie was a piece of tripe.

Love,

Sally