Saw National Treasure (thanks, Chris!) It was an unusual film, coming out in 2004 in the midst of a rapid polarization of American politics and riding on the coattails of the hit summer novel The Da Vinci Code. The Christian right was denouncing the idea that Jesus had a wife while the left was bitterly recounting votes. Conspiracy and paranoia were thick in those times and lo, here comes human internet meme Nicolas Cage to weave a treasure-hunt mythos around the founding of America. A very well-timed film. I imagine it did very well for exactly one box-office weekend [fact-check: actually, it was #1 for almost three weeks.]
Curious timing aside, it's a fairly breathless film. It's not very substantial but then no one expected it to be. The heroes are kind of cliche stock characters: the love interest, the sarcastic comic foil, the wiley protagonist. The love interest is also super-smart and competent for a change, but then again they keep talking about how she never shuts up (although she talks considerably less than the motor-mouthed Cage,) so I don't think this counts as progressive exactly. Oh well. The point of the movie, and indeed its greatest strength, lies in the chase from clue to clue, each one relying on knowledge of ever-more obscure trivia relating to 1700s America.
The film is very fun in an action-film sort of way. I was immensely gratified that it didn't pull any "The real treasure was freedom!"-style shenanigans. This is a very straightforward film, it's fundamentally fluffy lightness is only briefly hidden by the timing of its release. It's relatively long but doesn't feel that way. It jumps from climax to climax, always entertaining, never challenging. A pleasant little film.
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