review -- national treasure: book of secrets

However cheesy everyone says the first National Treasure was, I really liked it. So, I had to see the second one. My brother and I had come to the conclusion that it probably wouldn't be that great since Disney sequels and trilogies never seem to be very wonderful. But to my pleasant surprise, National Treasure: Book of Secrets topped my expectations.



When you think about it, with all that went on in the first movie there can't be much to do in the second. But somehow they came up with things. One of the things that I really like about these movies are that they make history interesting. Okay, a lot of what they say isn't true like there's probably not a treasure map on the back of the Constitution or a city of gold under Mt. Rushmore, but there are a lot of factual things. For instance, today I learned that there is more than 1 Statue of Liberty. Of course there is the one on Liberty Island in New York that was given to the United States as a gift from the French, but there is also one on the river Seine in Paris, France and others.

While watching this movie there were quite a few scenes that looked similar to those in the first film, like the ending when Riley hops into his red Ferrari. Nicholas Cage was quite entertaining, hilarious at times too when Ben Gates and his now ex-girlfriend, Abigail get into a fake fight to make a scene. As before, Justin Bartha as Riley Poole was my favorite, with his "Johnny Raincloud" behaviors. What was funny too was that he wrote a book about their previous adventure and no one read it...he was sitting in Borders doing an autograph session, but no one wanted an autograph and no one knew who he was. How sad, I know who you are Riley!!! I'd buy your book if it were only real! And of course there needs to be one thing that Riley knows that no one else does, like the facts on daylight savings time in the first movie. Well enough about him since I could probably go on forever.

There are a few things in the movie that are left unclear, like I am Legend it may have been better if it were longer, at least that way everything would have been explained.

As expected the movie was quite predictable, but there were things along the way that turned out differently that what would be expected, which makes it all the more interesting.

All in all, if you were a fan of the first movie you should be a fan of this one too. I think it goes against the claim that my brother and I made about Disney movies.




Oh and while I was at the movies, watching 20 minutes worth of previews, Be Kind, Rewind seemed interesting and quite funny. It about guys who own a video store and Jack Black character decided to wear a magnetized suit of foil (why, I don't know) and accidentally erases all the VHS tapes, so they have to film their own new versions, which people seem to like even more than the originals.