Welcome everyone. This blog mainly exists as a way of tracking all the movies I've been watching and some of the initial thoughts and general feelings I've had about them.
Rating System
5/5 - Fantastic movies; movies which need to be seen and enjoyed by everyone.
4/5 - Movies which are very good but don’t have that spark which compels you to make others watch them as well.
3/5 - Average movies; watchable and enjoyable, but nothing which elevates them higher. The baseline all movies are given before watching.
2/5 - Can be watched but really bland and forgettable.
1/5 - Minimal to no reason to watch these films. It may have some redeeming factors e.g. it’s so bad it’s good or there’s one character that’s awesome enough to make it not a total waste of time.
0/5- Total waste of time. Nothing redeemable about these films.
As with every review blog/site, this is all my own personal opinion so feel free to take everything with a grain of salt.
Also I'm Scottish so all reviews will be in UK English. Get used to theatre, colour and words ending in -ised.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
#335/#52 National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
(Rewatch)
When the Gate’s family name comes under attack, Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) starts tracking down evidence to exonerate his ancestor. This time his exploits take him around the world for clues, all the while being shadowed by another treasure hunter (Ed Harris) with ulterior motives.
I’m not quite as enamoured with this film as I was its predecessor. Where the original film walked the line quite nicely between acceptance or refusal of a given situation, the suspension of disbelief in this one is used just a few to many time for the audience to completely accept its logic. It doesn’t kill the film it just makes it a little less enjoyable.
It also suffers from sequelitis pretty hard. The leading couple has broken up in between films so that they can get back together by the end of this one, the sidekick gets his own romantic subplot, the father (Jon Voight) from the previous film and now mother (Helen Mirren) from this one are now main character but don’t really add anything, grander locations/settings for no real payout and the villain is just the previous villain in a different hat i.e. NT1 ‘I just want the money’ NT2 ‘I just want the money and family recognition’. Again it doesn’t make the film bad because of it, it just makes it less interesting.
I still enjoy the characters and the American history-mystery plot enough to not get bored watching this film but it’s never one I would watch without having rewatched the original movie first. 2/5
#334/#51 National Treasure
(Rewatch)
Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) is a treasure hunter going after the knights Templar’s secret treasure. After finding the latest clue is on the back of the declaration of independence, Gates has to steal the document before his former employer (Sean Bean) can get to it and destroy the priceless artifact. With the help of his team (Diane Kruger and Justin Bartha), Gates rushes across the United States picking up clues and trying to unravel the mystery first.
Some people don’t like this film because it’s just Disney’s attempt at a Da Vinci Code clone but I quite enjoy it. I’m not the biggest Nic Cage fan but his earnestness and over the top enthusiasm work really well at selling Gates as being both passionate and motivated enough to do all the crazy things he does in this. Similarly, Bartha works really well as comic relief and Kruger comes off as a capable female character, who happens to be the love interest, rather than just being the love interest for being the love interest’s sake. Plus she’s sexy as all Hell, so you’ll never hear me complain she’s in a movie.
Story-wise, yes it’s a little silly at times, but you signed up for a historical-based mystery film surrounding the Templars and American independence; how based in reality did you think this was going to be? As a non-American, who’s knowledge of the time period extends as far as knowing who George Washington and Ben Franklin were, none of it seemed enough to break my suspension of disbelief and I was willing to just accept most of it as it transpires.
Add to all of this some enjoyable speeches, a couple of interesting factoids, some good comedy, interesting locations, etc and I’d say there are a lot worse films you could be wasting an evening on. 4/5
