(If this is your first time on this blog, I ask you to read my About page first! Thanks!)

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!

Continue reading “National Treasure (2004)” →