For Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage), history isn't just a dry record of what's occurred in a distant and half-forgotten past... for him, history is alive, vital, and occasionally it offers the possibility of finding extraordinary treasures. After his astonishing discovery of the riches of the Templar Knights, Ben has become the world's most famous treasure hunter... although he prefers the term "treasure protector." Ben and his father, university professor Patrick Gates (Jon Voight), are shaken by the discovery of one of the long-lost pages from the diary of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. The diary was found on Booth's body when he was killed; however, several pages had been torn from the diary and have never been found... until now. Surprisingly, the information on this page seems to implicate their ancestor Thomas Gates as a co-conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln. Ben must work with his now ex-girlfriend, American history archivist Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), and his tech-wiz partner, Riley Poole (Justin Bartha), in a globe-trotting adventure which dangerously criss-crosses the inner sanctums of Washington, D.C., Paris, London and the American heartland.

When you boil it all down and take every thing into account, the National Treasure films are fun little pieces of popcorn fluff and not much else. The films aren’t history lessons, they aren’t gripping dramas, they don’t have any real social implications but what they are is fun, exciting and just sheer joy to watch. As we come out of a season of movies where one political drama bombed after another as we are bombarded with wars on the nightly news the National Treasure films allow us some escapism that is so hard to find now days. And that is what movies are supposed to be for, escapism, they provide us glimpses of a life we will never likely now. From car chases, to gun fights, to strutting around the globe on a fantastic treasure hunt we are able to delve into a fantastic world of adventure and turn our brains off for two hours and just enjoy ourselves. This is why I like the National Treasure films, and this is why they do so well and this is why Jerry Bruckheimer is a master of his craft he knows what the people want and he gives it them.

When the first film came out a lot of people delved into it a little deeper because the film did take a fantastical tale loosely based around history and there was much to learn about societies like the Knights Templar which do exist. Much like the Da Vinci Code the movie took parts of actual history and wrapped them around modern times and changed them into something else. Everything is so fictional but also feels so plausible. It makes you truly believe you could probably step our your door and if you knew where to look you could go a fantastic treasure hunt as well. The film is what books like Treasure Island used to be, tales of adventure, tales of excitement and tales that you could also likely be apart of.

My only fault with the movie is how do they one up themselves now. The sequel was about taking everything they did in the original film and just doing it grander and bigger. So where do you go from here, you’ve kidnapped the president, you’ve broke into Buckingham Palace what is there left to do. Now normally you could just say well they don’t need to do a sequel, this could be the end of the tale but that doesn’t work because they set themselves up for a sequel. The end of the film is all about setting itself up for the third film, but where is there to go from here.

It was good to see Nicholas Cage’s hair return to some sense of normalcy in the film. He can be an amazing actor but I am sorry to say all the hair plugs and weird hairstyles are actually starting to become a distraction. It takes you our of the moment, its stops you from removing yourself from reality and entering a fantasy world and it is hard to ignore and not focus on. Another let down was Justin Bartha who was so funny and so much fun in the original he just wasn’t as funny the second time around. It was like hearing the same joke told a second time, it just wasn’t as funny the second time around. And Ed Harris didn’t make the best villain either, he came off as flat as well. SO the movie was fun, it was exciting but it was flawed all at the same time. Worth a matinee, and good for a rental as despite all that the movies are still fun and worth watching.

Grade: B