National Treasure (2004)

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Today is a milestone for me on this blog: it’s my 200th review! Over 10 years of the blog and I’ve finally arrived at my 200th theatrically-released live-action Disney film…and there’s still more to go, lol! To celebrate this anniversary, I’m going to do something that I’ve never done before on this blog: a collab! My friend and fellow blogger, film critic, and WWTBAM-Animation Edition contestant, Sean Nasuti, came up with the idea and will be joining me in reviewing today’s film. I’ll allow him to introduce himself. His words will be italicized and in green for the duration of this review.

Thanks, man! Greetings, folks, my name is Sean Nasuti, I’m a freelance film critic originally from Rhode Island. Since May of 2012, I’ve been publishing reviews, editorials, Top 10 lists, and other similar content from my own personal site, Rhode Island Movie Corner. While I cover anything film-related on that site, anyone who knows me knows that I’m a huge Disney fan. I’ve also been a consistent contestant on Mark’s annual series of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire – Animation Edition competitions, where I’ve even been a two-time champ. But today, Mark and I are teaming up here on his My Live-Action Disney Project site for his first-ever collab review. And dang, man, 200th review? Congrats on that significant milestone!!

Thanks for joining me, Sean. Why not tell my lovely readers (both of them) what film we’re tackling for the 200th review…assuming they haven’t read the title yet?

Well, you’ve already covered the bulk of Disney’s most famous live-action films on this site, so it’s clear that there wasn’t much left that I was super familiar with. Looking through your index, however, I did notice that there were a pair of films that, surprisingly, you haven’t covered yet. And this makes me excited because, while we’re only covering the first of these films today, this is a duology that I’m a big fan of. In fact, I’d even say these are some of my favorite films of all-time, period. Yes, folks, believe it or not, Mark has never covered… the National Treasure films.

Yes, I’m actually very surprised that nobody has requested me to review either of the two films yet!

I’m not kidding when I say that these National Treasure films have always been personal favorites of mine. I’ve rewatched them plenty of times over the years and still remember going to see them in theaters. In the case of the original, it was the second-ever film that I saw at what was, at the time, a newly opened Showcase Cinema De Lux theater that’s about a half-hour from my New England home. It truly became a regular watch for my family back in the day, and since this was right around the time that the original Indiana Jones trilogy saw its official debut on DVD, I think it’s safe to say that globe-trotting adventure films like these were really up my alley back in the day. And even after I got into film criticism and became far more aware of the generally mixed reception that both these films got from critics, I’ve never gotten bored of these films whenever I watched them.

While ultimately a 2004 release, National Treasure is a project that had been in the works since 1999 under the direction of Jon Turteltaub who, at the time, had become a regular mainstay at Disney having directed a wide variety of films such as the 1993 cult-classic bobsled comedy, Cool Runnings, and 1996’s John Travolta vehicle, Phenomenon. The premise had been developed two years prior by the duo of Oren Aviv and Charles Segars with screenwriter Jim Kouf writing the initial screenplay; over the next few years, several other writers reworked the script, including director Turteltaub himself, though the final film only credits Aviv, Segars, Kouf, and the husband and wife duo of Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, with the Wibberleys eventually becoming the franchise’s key writers from this point onward.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at National Treasure!

And remember, SPOILERS AHEAD!

The film begins with a young Benjamin Gates, played by Hunter Gomez, exploring his grandfather’s attic in search of a book. He gets caught by his grandfather, John Gates, played by Christopher Plummer, who’s not upset, but feels it’s time to tell young Ben the story he wants to hear.

His grandfather tells the story of how in 1832, the last remaining signer of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll, was dying. Knowing he didn’t have long to live, he told his stable boy, Thomas Gates, to drive him to the White House to speak with President Andrew Jackson. The president wasn’t in, however, so Charles divulged his secret to Thomas (Ben’s great-great-great-great grandfather).

You see, Charles was a member of the Freemasons, a group formed centuries ago to protect a massive treasure deemed too large for one man alone to possess. It was smuggled into America and hidden with clues laid around to its location, but one by one, the clues disappeared. Only one clue remained: a scroll with the words, “The secret lies with Charlotte”, which was in Charles’ possession. Charles handed it over to Thomas before passing away. Why he wanted to hand this clue over to the President of the United States rather than just another member of the Freemasons, I dunno.

Well, to be fair, Grandpa does mention that our country’s first president, George Washington, was a member of the Masons so for all we know, the knowledge of the Templar Treasure was passed along from President to President. Plus, the sequel (which we’ll cover at a later date) does directly revolve around the Presidency.

Young Ben is, understandably, enthralled by the story. Ever since that day, the Gates family has tried to find the treasure, but sadly, to no avail. It’s even gotten Ben’s father, Patrick, played by Jon Voight, to believe that the treasure doesn’t actually exist.

This opening sequence is very much your traditional preamble to the main plot, hitting all the usual story beats to set up the main premise. Nevertheless, I do think that this is a very engaging way to start off the film, especially thanks to having all this exposition delivered by an indisputable cinematic icon like Christopher Plummer, who only appears at the beginning of this film but very much commands the screen as he was always known to do. It also does a nice job of setting up the recurring belief-based conflict between Ben and his father Patrick, with Patrick interrupting his father’s speech by pointing out how all their family’s failed attempts at finding the treasure have turned them into laughingstocks, which helps make Ben a sympathetic protagonist right out of the gate. Unlike someone like Indiana Jones, a well-respected member of the educational and archaeological communities, Ben Gates spends the majority of these two films working tirelessly to prove his critics wrong… which he indeed does every time.

Nevertheless, Ben retains his love for adventure and desire to find the treasure. Years later, now played by Nicolas Cage, Ben is exploring the Arctic with a team in search of a lost ship known as the Charlotte. Ben thinks this is the reference to Charlotte in Charles’ scroll. He has been hired by an Englishman, Ian Howe, played by Sean Bean, to find the treasure. It’s not made entirely clear who exactly Ian is or how he came to know of the treasure; all we know is that he’s rich enough to finance this expedition.

Soon enough, they find the shipwrecked ship and while they don’t find the treasure, they find another clue in the form of a meerschaum pipe. Connected to the pipe is a scroll with a riddle which Ben deduces to mean that a map to the treasure is located at the back of the Declaration of Independence. The question is, how exactly do they get their hands on the Declaration of Independence?

Funny enough, that’s exactly the plan. Ian proposes stealing the Declaration of Independence as he confesses that he’s been involved with illegal activities before. Ben can’t believe his ears and refuses to help Ian steal the Declaration of Independence. Angry about this, Ian and his men pull guns on Ben as well as his tech-savvy sidekick, Riley, played by Justin Bartha. Ben sets the ship on fire though, causing Ian and his men to escape before it explodes. Ben and Riley also manage to escape in time, unbeknownst to Ian and his men.

After the expositional prologue, this opening sequence officially sets the stage for the grand adventure that we take in this film, introducing us to three of the key players involved in the story as Ben Gates finally discovers the long-lost Charlotte, the first of many emotionally cathartic moments that he and his allies go through in these films. I’ll delve into this more as we go on but there’s something inherently satisfying about all the moments in which Ben and company find the next thing that they’re meant to be looking for, thus taking them one step closer to the Templar Treasure. In some ways, you can attribute this to the franchise’s terrific main theme composed by Trevor Rabin (a frequent collaborator of producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s), which reaches a majestic peak whenever Ben and company find their next clue.

As for the characters themselves, Ben Gates is an interesting one to talk about due to the actor playing him, Nicolas Cage. At this point, Cage, of course, is well known for his eccentric onscreen performances that are, more often than not, defined by the over-the-top antics he gets into as famously exemplified in films like Face/Off and infamously in films like The Wicker Man. But in the case of Ben Gates, at least when talking about this first film, this is easily one of the most subdued performances of Cage’s career as there aren’t really any of those trademark over-the-top moments of his outside of maybe this one bit where he makes a toast that references all the torture that the country’s Founding Fathers would’ve gone through if we had lost the Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, Cage’s screen presence is phenomenal, and as I noted earlier, we are very much on Ben’s side throughout the whole ordeal.

Next, we have the film’s main antagonist, Ian Howe, played by Sean Bean. Ian is a great foil to Ben in this film given his background as a well-off businessman with seemingly endless resources at his disposal. He always has a crew of henchmen at his side and maintains a composed vibe throughout, rarely getting explosive at anyone. Like Cage, Sean Bean is a terrific actor with top-notch charisma and the film does a great job of maintaining a back-and-forth dynamic between the two, with Ian and his crew consistently proving to be a thorn in Ben’s side to the point where practically every major sequence in the film is a case of Ben and company trying to get away from Ian’s crew.

Finally, we have Ben’s dorky yet loyal sidekick Riley Poole, played by Justin Bartha, a character that I recognize may or may not arguably be a bit polarizing amongst audiences as he primarily serves as these films’ primary source of comic relief. And yet, personally, I love Riley as a character. His comedic quips are quite delightful, but more importantly, as much as he is often written as a bumbling sidekick, there are also plenty of times where it’s made clear that he’s a genius in his own right, especially when it comes to providing Ben with impeccable tech support. Bartha’s onscreen rapport with Cage is terrific throughout and it’s clear that Riley truly is Ben’s best friend and confidante regardless of the crazy schemes that he comes up with.

Ben and Riley then head to Washington, D.C. to alert the authorities, including the FBI, that Ian and his men are planning to steal the Declaration of Independence. But of course, nobody takes their story seriously. Ben tries one more time at the National Archives and speaks with an archivist, Dr. Abigail Chase, played by Diane Kruger. She also doesn’t believe his story and assures him that the Declaration of Independence can’t be stolen and that she herself can attest to the fact that there is no map at the back of it.

To close out the main trio of protagonists, we have Diane Kruger as Abigail Chase who, over the course of these films, becomes Ben’s main love interest. However, despite a few instances where she becomes a damsel in distress (which, to be clear, only really occur in this film and are practically non-existent by the time the sequel rolls around), she is in no way a straight-forward love interest. From the moment Ben and Abigail first meet, it’s clear that she’s very much his equal on an intellectual level; when Ben isn’t able to come up with the solution to a puzzle, she’s almost always the one who figures out the one thing that he didn’t. In fact, despite what I just said about the moments where Ben saves her from a perilous situation, there are even a few times where the roles are reversed and SHE is the one rescuing him.

Ben realizes that the only way he can prevent the Declaration of Independence from being stolen by Ian…is to steal it himself! Riley tries to reason with Ben that this isn’t just a crazy idea, but an impractical one too!

“I’m going to steal the Declaration of Independence!”, easily the most iconic line from this film, and if you ask me, even if you think that this film is completely preposterous from a narrative standpoint, there’s no denying how unforgettable this moment is. And to go back to what I said earlier about how this is one of the most subdued performances of Nicolas Cage’s career, this scene is a perfect example of why much of this works in context. Cage is able to sell this line with the utmost confidence and emotional gravitas because, once again, you’re on Ben’s side as he realizes that he has no other options at this point and must beat Ian to the punch when it comes to stealing the Declaration so that Ian won’t destroy the most significant document in U.S. history to ensure that no one can follow him in his hunt for the Templar Treasure. Thus, after a dramatic monologue in which Ben reads a passage from the Declaration about how it is the right of every American to fight back against those who threaten democracy to ensure its survival for future generations, his proclamation of his intent to steal the Declaration is quite arguably one of the most satisfying ‘Heck Yeah’ moments in cinematic history.

Nevertheless, Ben is determined. His plan is to steal the Declaration of Independence from the Preservation Room where it’ll be stored during an upcoming gala event at the National Archives. Both Ben and Riley prepare for the heist. Ben creates a fake ID to get him past security. Riley shines a camcorder laser at the heat sensor where the Declaration of Independence is displayed. This causes the document to be taken downstairs to the Preservation Room.

Soon enough, it’s the night of the gala and everything is in place. Riley is parked in a van outside keeping an eye on all the security camera footage inside the National Archives that he’s already hacked into. Ben makes it past security and exchanges pleasantries with Dr. Chase, who’s a bit surprised to see him at this event.

He manages to surreptitiously make an imprint of her fingerprint from her wine glass. He uses this to access the elevator to descend to the Preservation Room. He then tries to figure out her computer password using a UV light to see which letters she typed. Riley tries to run the letters through a computer program, but Ben realizes that the password is “Valley Forge”.

He makes it into the Preservation Room with the Declaration of Independence right in front of him. However, unbeknownst to him, Ian and his men are at the gala too and trying to break into the Preservation Room as well. Riley realizes that trouble’s afoot and alerts Ben to get out of there. Ben takes the framed Declaration of Independence with him to the elevator and comes face to face with Ian and his men. They take shots at Ben which are blocked by the frame’s glass, but Ben manages to escape in the elevator.

Earlier, I noted that one of my favorite aspects of this film is how every instance in which Ben and his allies successfully find the next clue to the treasure is incredibly satisfying, and a lot of this is thanks to another key aspect of the film: how it expertly crafts sequences like this one in which Ben and Riley enact their plan to steal the Declaration of Independence. Whether it’s Riley acquiring access to the Archives’ security cameras or Ben coming up with the process of acquiring Abigail’s fingerprint to get through security clearance, these sequences are always fun to watch as director Jon Turteltaub and editor William Goldenberg do a phenomenal job in maintaining a lighthearted yet breezy pace throughout. In other words, while this film is very much full of expositional dialogue whenever Ben and crew deduce the solution to a clue, it never drags at any point and genuinely keeps you on the edge of your seat as you wait to see what happens next.

While in the elevator, Ben removes the Declaration of Independence from the frame and hides it on his person. He escapes into the gift shop where a cashier sees the document sticking out of his suit and assumes it’s one of the Declaration of Independence reproductions that they sell that he’s trying to steal. It costs $35.

By now, security has come to discover that the Declaration of Independence has been stolen and Dr. Chase (AKA “The, uh, mean Declaration lady!”) is highly suspicious of Ben. She confronts him outside the building as he’s trying to get into the van, furious that he could even think about stealing the document! He hands her a reproduction that he bought from the gift shop which she assumes to be the real deal and walks back to the National Archives with it. Before she reaches there, however, she’s kidnapped by Ian and his men in a van who assume that she has the real Declaration of Independence on her. Ben and Riley follow leading to a van chase as they try to rescue Dr. Chase.

Ben and Riley successfully rescue Dr. Chase and give Ian and his men the slip. By now, the FBI, led by Agent Sadusky, played by Harvey Keitel,  has learned about Ben and is on his tail. Ben seeks refuge at his father’s house to study the Declaration of Independence in peace. Riley and Dr. Chase are with him too as Riley is still loyal to Ben and Dr. Chase doesn’t want to let the Declaration of Independence out of her sight.

Ben and Dr. Chase apply lemon juice to the back of the document and use a hair dryer on it to reveal multiple sets of three numbers separated by hyphens.

It’s an Ottendorf cipher where the first number represents a page number, the second a line on that page, and the third the letter on that line. But what document is this referring to? Based on the clue found on the Charlotte, it’s in reference to the Silence Dogood letters, letters written under a pseudonym by Benjamin Franklin to get his letters published in his brother’s newspaper. Patrick once owned the letters, but divulges that he’s donated them to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. So it’s off to Philadelphia for Ben, Riley, and Dr. Chase.

Barring current opinions of what he’s been up to these past few years, Jon Voight is another excellent addition to the cast as Ben’s father Patrick. In the case of this film, Patrick is a lot like Ian in that he serves as a foil to Ben given his cynical outlook on the possibility that the Templar Treasure is real. And once he realizes that the document Ben, Riley, and Abigail are inspecting happens to be the Declaration of Independence, there’s a great moment where he realizes just how far Ben has gone and that his worst fear has come true; that Ben has done what every other member of the Gates family has done and screwed up his life to try and find something that may not even exist (side note, another great acting moment from Cage is when Patrick proclaims that “the treasure’s a myth” and Ben simply replies “I refuse to believe that!”.

At one point, Patrick notes that this was one of the reasons why he ended up divorcing his wife who, spoilers, we’ll end up meeting in the sequel. But as the film goes on, that cynicism eventually subsides and it’s a nice bit of emotional poignancy to see father and son finally see eye to eye. Aside from that, Voight also delivers a lot of great quips as the film’s resident cranky paternal figure, like when, to throw the FBI off their trail, Ben and company tie Patrick up to make it look like he had nothing to do with them and he greets Agent Sandusky and the FBI when they arrive at his house by nonchalantly asking them to untie him while he takes a sip of his soda.

They drive to Philadelphia overnight (Riley: “This car smells weird!”) and Riley pays a young schoolkid money to secretly inspect the Silence Dogood letters on display in the museum and to relay the correct letters back to him. Riley works through the kid so as not to bring about suspicion, but he only gives the kid a few sets at a time, making the kid have to do multiple trips. Wouldn’t that bring about more suspicion to anyone watching?

My point is proven when Ian and his men arrive on the scene, having deduced that the riddle was related to the Silence Dogood letters. Ian notices the kid who has returned to where Riley was sitting, but Riley has since left having figured out the last few letters by himself. Ian pays the kid $100 to provide him with the last few letters that he was going to give to Riley. They happen to be “STOW”. Using a Yahoo! search engine, Ian and his men deduce that this is in reference to the Liberty Bell in Independence Hall.

However, the Liberty Bell was replaced by the Centennial Bell in 1876, so that’s where Ben, Riley, and Dr. Chase are headed. Ben finds a pair of old glasses with colored lenses hidden behind a brick and uses them to look at the Declaration of Independence. More clues are revealed, but Ian and his men have caught up to them, so it’s time to split up. Ben takes the glasses and heads in one direction, while Riley and Dr. Chase take the Declaration of Independence and head in another direction.

Interesting little fact here; while almost all of the film’s biggest sequences were shot on location at the locales they take place in (e.g. the National Archives in Washington D.C., Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, etc.), Independence Hall is notably the only major outlier of the group. Instead of filming in the actual Philadelphia location (though, to be clear, all other Philadelphia sequences were shot on location), the interior scenes were filmed at the Independence Hall replica at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. Thankfully, in this rare instance, you’d barely notice it unless you read what I just told you and the on-set location filming helps to give this film a nice authentic feel to its action and mystery set-pieces, even when a sequence is clearly being filmed on a set.

Ian and his men split up to try to catch any of the three. They fail in that endeavor, but manage to get their hands on the Declaration of Independence. Ben gets caught by Agent Sadusky and his team and is immediately arrested. He’s taken in for questioning, but it’s clear that Agent Sadusky doesn’t believe his story 100%.

Agent Sadusky suggests that Ben can be in prison for a very long time, but can still help them regain the Declaration of Independence. Ben receives a call from Ian to meet him the following morning aboard the USS Intrepid in New York with the glasses. He also warns him not to bring any FBI agents with him. At Agent Sadusky’s encouragement, Ben agrees.

To close out the core cast, we have Harvey Keitel as Agent Peter Sadusky, and while Sadusky does spend much of the film chasing after Ben after he steals the Declaration of Independence, Sadusky isn’t a ‘villain’; instead, while he obviously doesn’t approve of Ben’s tactics, the two clearly see eye to eye on a lot of things such as the importance of preserving the Templar Treasure for future generations, especially after a key reveal right at the end gives Ben the full picture on why Sadusky is just as knowledgeable about the treasure as he is.

Ben goes to the aforementioned meeting place with the FBI agents watching him from afar. He gives them the slip though by jumping into the river below. He’s picked up by Ian’s gang who take him to meet Ian at the corner of Wall Street and Broadway. Dr. Chase had reached out to Ian telling him that the most recent clue leads them to that corner. She promised Ian that he could keep the treasure as long as he rescued Ben from the FBI, which he agreed to.

Ian hands the Declaration of Independence over to Ben as well as the meerschaum pipe from the Charlotte. Ben tells Ian that they’re at the right intersection and that there’s no further information that he’s hiding. However, when he realizes that Ian has kidnapped his father, he tells Ian that they actually need to go inside Trinity Church.

Ian and his men head into the church along with Ben, Patrick, Riley, and Dr. Chase. They break into a crypt of a man named Parkington Lane (based on a clue from the document) and begin descending. They come across a bunch of old, rickety, rotted, collection of scaffolding, bridges, and a primitive elevator system.

Riley gets his own definitive quote in this sequence: “Ok, who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?”. This, of course, brings us to the main finale of the film, set within the ancient caverns hidden beneath Trinity Church, an all-around great locale, especially since this was back when these locations were created practically rather than just being CGI backdrops like they often are today. Thus, even though this is obviously just a set that they filmed on a soundstage, this whole area feels authentically ominous, especially once it starts falling apart, with Ben and Abigail nearly falling to their doom along with the Declaration itself and one of Ian’s goons, Shaw, falling to his death when walking across the old walkways. Through it all, the film continues to wonderfully build up the suspense as Ben and company get ever so closer to the Treasure, all while working to keep Ian off their tracks.

As they descend, a couple of close calls occur involving the near deaths of Patrick Gates, Ben Gates, and Dr. Chase as well as the near loss of the Declaration of Independence. In the end though, they make it down to a room that turns out to be completely empty.

Everyone is distraught at reaching a dead end. Ian and his men begin to go back up in the wooden elevator and leave the others down there to die unless Ben tells him what the next clue is. Patrick defeatedly informs Ian that the next clue is a reference to Paul Revere’s ride and that the next location to visit should be the Old North Church in Boston.

Ian is happy to hear this and takes the elevator up anyway with his men leaving Ben, Riley, Patrick, and Dr. Chase to be trapped below. After Ian and his men leave, it’s revealed that Patrick lied to Ian to send him on a wild goose chase. Everyone looks for a way out and they discover a button that opens to another room that is also empty. In that room is an indentation in the wall that fits Ben’s meerschaum pipe perfectly. He puts the pipe in the indentation which reveals another room where the long-sought-after treasure is!

And here we come to the climax of what I’ve been saying all throughout this review; after all the years that he and his family have spent searching for the treasure, the moment where Ben, Patrick, Riley, and Abigail finally uncover the mythical Templar Treasure is nothing short of emotionally satisfying, particularly when Ben and Patrick use their torches to light up the treasure room, revealing the full extent of the massive collection of priceless artifacts that the Templars had amassed over centuries. Plus, Riley gets my personal favorite line in the whole film during this sequence; when Abigail notices that Riley is crying, we see that Riley isn’t getting emotional because they found the treasure… he’s just happy to find the stairs that will get them back up to the surface.

Everyone is joyous that they’ve finally found the treasure and exit through the back stairs present there. Agent Sadusky has arrived on scene and Ben hands over the Declaration of Independence to him as well as the location of the treasure on the condition that none of them get jail sentences or charged. Agent Sadusky, who happens to also be a member of the Freemasons, agrees. Ben also informs Agent Sadusky about Ian and his men and the FBI arrest them at the Old North Church in Boston.

Ben is offered a 10% finder’s fee of the treasure, but declines it in favor of a 1% finder’s fee, much to Riley’s dissatisfaction. Well, he’s not totally dissatisfied, as he gets a sweet convertible out of it. Ben and Dr. Chase end up together and Ben gets a lofty estate.

And that was National Treasure! Honestly, it’s a fun adventure-filled treasure hunt which is all that this film needs to be. There isn’t much character development in the film as nobody really changes internally, but again this is more of a treasure hunt film than a character study.

I thought the acting by everyone was pretty solid or at least passable for the genre, especially that of Nicolas Cage and Sean Bean. Riley’s character annoyed the heck out of me, so Justin Bartha’s acting also annoyed me. Like Sean mentioned earlier, Riley’s character will be the most divisive in this film. I also wish that we had more backstory on Ian! I’d love to know how he got involved in this treasure hunt to begin with!

First off, called it! Will be interesting to see if Mark’s opinion on Riley changes in any way when we get to the sequel. Simply put, I absolutely adore this film and it’s easily one of my favorite films of all-time. Yes, I know that it goes to some incredibly ludicrous lengths to craft a story where our Founding Fathers oversaw the management of a massive treasure and hid secrets all across the country to ensure its protection, but thanks to solid direction from Jon Turteltaub, a top-notch ensemble cast headlined by the likes of Nicolas Cage and Harvey Keitel, and an all-around fun atmosphere that keeps things light and breezy throughout but still very much exciting to watch, I’d say that this is one of the best examples of a good old-fashioned popcorn flick that has something in it for everyone.

Obviously, I don’t recommend any of you young folks out there use this as some sort of historical reference in any of your classes unless you want your teachers to roast you for all their historical inaccuracies, but at the same time, I’d argue that this is a fun way for younger viewers to potentially take a greater interest in learning about this country’s history; in other words, it’s just like how the best ‘based on a true story’ films can inspire you to learn more about the people and events that they’re based on. Now as for a rating, I must start by pointing out that I abide by a different rating system than the one that Mark uses for this site. Mark, of course, will continue to maintain his system thusly, but as for me, I run on the classic ‘Out of 5’ system, and in the case of this film that I’ve obviously seen many times in my life and will continue to do so after this, it is very much a 5/5 in my book.

It astounds me really how greatly technology has changed in the past 10-20 years! This film has a whole treasure hunt premise using only camcorders, flip phones, passwords that don’t require special characters, and Yahoo! search engines! Imagine what this film would be like had it been made today with smartphones, social media, drones, complex password configurations, etc.! Yes, I know there’s a new television series on Disney+, but I’m not gonna check it out (I’ll talk about it briefly at the end of our future review of the sequel just to give you all an idea of how it updated this franchise for a new generation – Sean).

I wanna thank Sean for celebrating my 200th review with me and for being my first ever collab on this blog. We’ll be back sometime in the future to tackle the sequel. But until then, where can folks find you, Sean?

Well, as I noted in the intro, my own personal site is Rhode Island Movie Corner, which you can find at rimoviecorner.blogspot.com. Admittedly, I haven’t been posting on that site as much as I’ve done in the past for reasons that I won’t get into here, but when I do, it’s still very much the spot where I post all my reviews, retrospectives, etc. Until then, stay tuned; we won’t be doing it right away but when the time comes, I will, indeed, be back for whenever we tackle 2007’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

Be sure to check out his blog! And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out National Treasure! It is indeed a national treasure!

So, my final score for this film is 31/35 = 88.57% (B+) !

The next review will be posted on October 31, 2023.