Movie Review: National Treasure

National Treasure: Torgo approves

I know I've been blog-tardy (oh, that sounds like an unpleasant bowel condition). Life experiences that give me things to blog about come in direct proportion with a lack of time to write those entries. It's like one of those graphs from economics I struggled with. I hated that class.

But though I have much to write about, you're getting this, a review of National Treasure.

It's good. Rainster said this, I believe, but it's a movie we watched expecting little and were pleasantly surprised. It's not high art, sure, but it has some good history (mixed with totally bogus history) and it's entertaining. There are many good actors, like Harvey Keitel and Jon Voight. Jerry Bruckheimer restrains himself to just one explosion. Also, there are some good laughs.

I remember being about 11 or so the first time I went to Washington, D.C. At the National Archives, I stood in front of the Declaration of Independence, heard about the security, how it drops into a sealed vault based on all the sensors, and, of course, thought about how cool that is. It was like Mission: Impossible before Tom Cruise went and, well, was Tom Cruise.

Wisely, the movie moves quickly. The theft comes early, then it's a big chase with stock parts and characters, but it's all put together well and Nicolas Cage deserves much of the credit. He has a way around the more ludicrous moments that keeps the whole mood light.

I don't think we'll rush out to see the sequel later this year, but we'll probably see it on dvd.