by Jason Daniel Baker

Created on: June 08, 2008   Last Updated: December 31, 2011

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (2007) - Starring Nicholas Cage, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Ed Harris, Dame Helen Mirren, Ty Burrell, Bruce Greenwood.

Directed by Jon Turteltab.

Running time: 124 minutes.

Rating: PG

"Another treasure hunt?! "

Archaeologist Ben Gates (Cage) is presented with continual evidence that an ancestor of his was a part of the Lincoln assassination and not the hero he contends the man was. Instead of just dismissing the new contention brought forward by an unscrupulous fellow archaeologist (Harris), Gates aims to prove him wrong.

Being drawn into the debate, reunited with his relic hunting parents (Voight and Mirren) and his comely ex-girlfriend Abigail (Kruger), Ben also becomes drawn in to a loosely-related treasure hunt. It involves something known as 'the Presidential Book' (rather similar to the two letters Nikita Kruschev wrote for his successor, I should think), which the title alludes to, and a city of gold. Urban legends and conspiracy theories loosely bound together thus form the base of a clumsy film made for kids and rather indiscriminate movie-going parents.

As so often happens, plausible facts fill the vacuum of speculation in conspiracy theories. In this day and age the least deferential journalists also tend to get reduced to the status of bloggers, making it easier than ever for any slick person in a tasteful suit who cultivates TV talking heads to dupe the public.

Questions remain as to the facts within the story. As we discover, President Coolidge found evidence of this city of gold in his desk and not only did not send out the Secretary of the Treasury to claim it, he destroyed the evidence. This goes unexamined.

If one needs answers, one might speculate that Coolidge feared both the chaos a gold rush might cause and the impact on the international gold market. Hoover would likely have done the same and FDR would likely done the opposite. Of course the movie does not go there, as it might be too difficult to explain.

Then we have the matter of page 47 in the Presidential Book. What's on it? Is merely creating the mystery of the page (and other pages dealing with the JFK assassination and Area 51) intended to structure the next sequel? I hate it when successful franchises are so blatantly manipulative of audiences.

Nicholas Cage gives one of his lesser performances in a career filled with indescribably bad ones, but mercifully displays less of his own personality and irritating gestures. He has hidden himself within roles successfully in the past and in so doing he actually looks halfway human in some of them. I wish he had done just a little more here to hide himself. Or they could have gotten a different actor entirely.

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