Cinema Tuesdays Review

Antiques Roadshow, Action Style!
By Nathan Cone

“National Treasure” is hokum. Nicolas Cage plays modern-day treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates, whose family has, for years, been searching for a treasure supposedly hidden in Colonial America by our Founding Fathers. Critics have compared it to The Da Vinci Code, but don’t worry -- Geroge Washington and Thomas Jefferson don’t have a secret relationship.

Actually, “National Treasure” cribs from quite a few sources, including “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and other Indiana Jones films, and it steals outright a trick from Steven Soderbergh’s remake of “Ocean’s Eleven.” Both of those films had stronger characters, but “National Treasure” is not entirely devoid of merit.

The premise of a treasure hidden by the Founding Fathers is a good one, but if Ben Gates is as good at deciphering treasure clues as he is in this film, then why has it taken his family so long to find this treasure? Gates seems to be in his late thirties or early forties - judging by the astonishing rapidity with which he solves the mystery of the treasure, he should have found it when he was, oh, about twenty-three.

Diane Kruger plays Abigail Chase, a worker for the National Archives who is forced to believe Ben’s astonishing story of a treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence when a rival group of treasure hunters tries to steal the precious document. She does what she can with the role, and has fun with it, but the lack of chemistry between her and Cage led me to wonder why in the world they wind up kissing near the climax of the film. Can’t attractive treasure hunters just be buddies for once? Breaking that little amount of sexual tension with a kiss effectively killed what chemistry they had for me.

Harvey Keitel has a nice role as an FBI agent on the trail of Gates and his rival, Ian Howe, played by Sean Bean. Keitel doesn’t ratchet up the volume, and so he has a sly demeanor about him that shows he knows more than we think he does about this whole mess.

The DVD of “National Treasure” looks pretty good, and the surround-sound speakers are used quite a bit, as this is an action film, but sometimes I felt like the effects were just thrown to the back speakers with too much force, throwing off the balance of front-to-back sound. A good mix should always concentrate on the front and center channels, and use the surrounds for sweetening or directional effects.

The disc’s bonus features include deleted scenes and an alternate ending with optional commentary by director Jon Turteltaub. There were probably more than just the two included here, as Turteltaub explains that the original cut of the film was close to four hours long! Turtletaub’s explanation of why these scenes were cut or changed is informative.

There is a puff piece about the “Making of National Treasure,” and a short clip about the Templar Knights, who “may have transported treasure to the new world.” No, really. Only one guy is interviewed, which led me to suspect he was a friend of the studio. “Riley Poole’s Decode This” is a set-top game that I grew increasingly impatient with, so I never discovered the treasure. And quite unbelievably, one of the “special features” on the disc, a “Verizon Trailer,” is just a commercial for the cell phone company. Sheesh.

There is one interesting feature on the disc that is all too short. “Treasure Hunters Revealed” takes a look at some real life treasure hunters as they search in the ocean and the mountains of America for historical treasures from our past. This feature should have been much longer, even an hour. The real history is more fascinating than the fake stuff in “National Treasure.”

5/10/05

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