Customer Reviews

National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(150)
4 star:		(102)
3 star:		(50)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Ben Gates is just not doing well at all:

His girlfriend broke up with him
He's living with his father

and....

Ben Gates' Great Grandfather, Thomas Gates, is just about to be nationally recognized as a hero when Mitch Wilkinson steps out and announces he has evidence that Thomas Gates was part of the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.

In order to clear his ancestor's name, Ben, his sidekick Riley, and Ben's father start to investigate an order of Southern militants. What they discover was that Queen Victoria supported the Southerner's cause and she was attempting to help them find a treasure to finance the war.

Naturally, there's a treasure involved--the famed City of Gold. In order to find this treasure, they must race against Mitch Wilkinson and kidnap the US President to get to the Presidential Book of Secrets, containing information about everything from the City of Gold to Area 51 and the Kennedy Assassination.

Along the way, Ben's ex-girlfriend, Abigail, and Mom, Dr. Em Appleton, are added to the treasure hunting crew.

In my opinion, "Book of Secrets" has exceeded the "National Treasure." The story's better, the ensemble cast is strongly refined, and both the jokes and action just keep coming. Everyone in the cast save for Ed Harris impressed me. I honestly wasn't sure whether Mitch Wilkinson was a mercenary or a misguided man trying to claim some fame for his own family.

And yes--there appears to be a good chance we will see more of Ben Gates' adventuring. This one sanctioned by the President himself. I'm looking forward to Film 3.

An added bonus was the Disney cartoon up front where Goofy gets a bigscreen TV. The story details an armchair quarterback's quest for the optimal viewing experience and how simple it is to set up a modern home theatre system. The jokes were so fast and furious I had tears in my eyes by the end and my stomach hurt from laughing. This cartoon is second only to my all-time favorite movie cartoon featuring the "Madagascar Penguins" that featured in front of "Wallace and Gromit--the Curse of the Were-Rabbit."

Short Attention Span Summary (SASS):

1. Civil War dirty secrets are brought to light and set alight
2. Ben Gates' great-great grandfather gets bad name, but isn't completely clueless
3. Ben Gates (Cage) follows cryptic clues to clear the family name.
4. Clues actually lead to mighty big treasure, but that isn't the real prize, apparently.
5. Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris) goes to a lot of trouble to get Gates to show him the money
6. Apparently, the money isn't the only issue in his case either
7. Highly impossible but riveting treasure hunt crosses the pond and back
8. Security personnel at Buckingham Palace are not amused
9. Cameras installed for traffic offenses have excellent resolution and can actually come in handy for close-ups of small objects traveling at high speed
10. The President of the United States will drop everything to do a little tunnel exploration with Nicholas Cage.
11. Cage pulls Cheney too
12. Occupants of the Oval Office sometimes write secrets in a little diary and then hide it
13. You won't believe the places where people have been hiding stuff.
14. Helen Mirren adds class to the cast. Jon Voight and Harvey Keitel add comic relief. Cage adds yet another bad hairdo.

This movie has more exciting bits than the first (as far as I can remember), and can get the old adrenaline pumping. Fans of the Indiana Jones series will probably want to watch this, but will leave thinking that Harry Ford would have done a much better job in the lead role.

The romantic (!) parts don't work at all, and you'll really have to suspend reality for this one, but there's still enough to rate it four stars.



Amanda Richards, January 9, 2008

The opening Goofy cartoon alone is worth the price of admission to this family friendly film. Like most sequels, this one is generally satisfying, but no match to its predecessor as it simply isn't as fresh or original.

Amazon's review is solid in hitting all the plot points and general positive and negatives about this film; therefore, I'll dispense with covering much of that as this film is really for die hard Cage fans and for those that loved the first Treasure film. This one can't hold a candle to that one, but it does well enough on its own.

The characters are all back and still fun, Riley is my favorite with lines like, "Oh, here come my tax dollars to arrest me," and the addition of Ben Gates' mom played by Helen Mirren, who is supposedly so mean she can freeze beer with just a stare, is an asset to any film she graces. Although Sean Bean was a far more interesting villain, Ed Harris, not new to playing a heavy (see A History of Violenceand Just Cause) is okay enough here. Diane Kruger returns as Cage's nearly ex-wife and is just as charming and alluring as she was in the first (I love that accent of hers). Of course, Jon Voight returns as Gates' dad and is hysterical in his scenes with Helen Mirren who always makes him feel like he's three years old. Naturally, this film would be nothing without Cage's engaging performance at Ben Gates, although I do think he's doing a bit more "going through the motions" with this outing (and we are threatened with a third at the end).

The plot like the first one is unbelievable and filled with holes, but also like the first one, we are willing to suspend our disbelief to enjoy the ride the film provides. The chase scenes are exciting, but less believable than our first go-around. Come on, London is known for having the world's largest parking lot for streets. No one is car/bus chasing anyone through there! However, like I said, we are along for the ride here and we know it's all silly stuff, but it is enjoyable even if it is a bit of a letdown in comparison to the first National Treasure.

Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer have dived yet again into their secret book to pull out a map that leads to treasures of vast fortune. No, not a legendary city of gold, but the riches that come from storming the box office. National Treasure: Book of Secrets is everything a big budget adventure sequel should be. A bigger story and better action help make Book of Secrets a surprising end of the year crowd pleaser.

Setting out to clear his ancestor's name, Ben Gates is back in treasure-hunting action to unequivocally prove that his family had nothing to do with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. With his usual cohorts Riley, Abigail and his father, Patrick Gates, the trio must race against the clock to stop a new enemy, Mitch Wilkinson, from uncovering an ancient treasure before they can, or forever risk the Gates name being associated with the death of one of America's greatest presidents.

A hit for Nicholas Cage has been long overdue. Spanning nearly two full years making dud after dud, Cage is back and in good form, even if a sequel to the massively successful National Treasure was a safe no-brainer. Book of Secrets is just as outlandishly fun as its predecessor, one-upping the original by having the principle characters break into Buckingham Palace and even kidnap the President of the United States!

Kudos have to be handed over to screenwriters Cormac and Marianne Wibberley for crafting such a big adventure, yet staying true to the themes that director John Turtletaub and company established with the first National Treasure. Even though their new adventure takes the entourage of talented character actor's across the globe, Book of Secrets manages to keep this treasure hunt a uniquely American tale. Just wait until you see where our government hid one of the most famed and sought after treasures of all time!

Upping the production value from the last film, Book of Secrets is crammed packed with puzzles, car chases and exciting action sequences to help keep the film filled with riveting adventure from opening to closing frame. John Turtletaub has again done a great job of keeping the manic pace of the film frantic and fun, even if there are a few solitary moments when the picture starts to feel the weight of its lengthy running time.

While the returning cast again does a stellar job continuing their characters, newcomers to the series Ed Harris and Hellen Mirren are welcomed additions to the story. While Harris is perfectly suited for the role, his character, Mitch Wilkinson, seems to be the only weak link to the story. Wilkinson seems like a very torn individual. One minute the dastardly villain is opening fire on our heroes, vowing to end their lives to get at the treasure, and the next he is helping them!

Luckily the picture's best moments don't hinge on confrontations between Cage and Harris. The real fun of National Treasure has always been watching as the characters solve some of history's most challenging puzzles. Book of Secrets is assuredly no different, keeping audiences on their toes and tantalizing them with conspiracy theories that will likely continue the franchise forward.

Between massive Pirate's plunder and uncovering buried National Treasure, 2007 aims to be a financially lucrative year for Disney's live action department. With surprises at every turn, Book of Secrets has established National Treasure as a viable and fun adventure franchise, making the film a must see holiday blockbuster that the whole family can enjoy.

-Joe Russo

Despite the fact that this 2007 sequel to the popular "National Treasure" boasts a fine cast of actors (Nicholas Cage, Jon Voight, personal favorite Ed Harris and the incomparable Helen Mirren,) "Book of Secrets" catapults into a fast but formulaic action with a little less than the high voltage adrenaline the initial film offered, repositioning famed treasure-hunter/historian Ben Franklin Gates (Cage) to face yet another widely publicized dis --- this time linking his equally cipher-solving obscure masters-of-trivia ancestors to the Lincoln assassination. Unfortunately, the direction in which "Book" heads detours a bit from the mixture of DaVinci Code cleverness and conspiracy theory weaving through a politically fueled labyrinth of arcane societies that I expected.

Instead, Cage and Co. move at warp speed through each step of this adventure quest seeking the famed Cibola---City of Gold, gathering clues in a variety of eye-pleasing locations while connecting the dots with an ease that will make one's head spin and put the fastest number-crunching supercomputer to shame. The rather predictable climax, relying heavily on Speilberg's Indiana Jones success formula, replete with bickering, bantering adjuncts and couples and `look-what-you've-gotten-me-into-now' repartee wows the audience with the same unreal sensation achieved at the end of a Disneyland ride--think Pirates of the Caribbean when your amusement park shuttle boat lies in the shadow of the facsimile pirate ship and the whole audio-animatronic crew sings "(Yo Ho)A Pirate's Life for Me," while the gunpowder explodes and the backdrop shudders. In fact, this very feeling suggests what went wrong in this could-have-been fun more-adult film: an over reliance on Disney-fication--too much pyrotechnics over Sleeping Beauty castle: nuanced players under-utilized to depict banality, trite, yet s(n)appy dialogue that feigns intelligence, old tried-but-true attempts at humor that probably work well for the audience it attempted to capture--PG family far--and an underscoring of historical gravitas as depicted by Cage's deadpan expression and Bruce Greenwood's presidential suavity and emphasized by a soaring patriotic soundtrack.

Bottom line? "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" delivers exactly what the marquee suggests: pleasant albeit familiar family fare with a slick Disney polishing that seems to jump about more like a video game than a film. Recommended as a fun enjoyment for families but not for the more serious minded conspiracy theory aficionado.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"

The Book of Secrets closely follows the successful pattern of the first movie--adventurous, semi-historic treasure hunting. While some have criticized the movie from not being drastically different than the first offering, I did not view this as a problem. I'm not sure what the viewers with this particular criticism were expecting; I mean the movie is a sequel with the same characters, etc. In my mind you can't veer too far from the original premise or you won't have a logical sequel.

National Treasure 2 was a logical and worthy sequel to the first movie. All of the main characters and respective actors/actresses you'd expect to see made an appearance along with a few new additions. The film brings plenty of new puzzles, historic sites (including a few outside of the United States this time around), and perilous adventure.

How does the movie stack up to the original? If you enjoyed the first National Treasure then you'll like Book of Secrets. It is not as good as the first movie but it's awfully close. The only reason I say it is not as good as the first is because I had an idea of what to expect from the movie going in whereas with the first film everything (i.e., semi-historically based treasure hunting, characters, etc.) was completely new to me.

Additionally, the movie manages to offer all of these things in a very family friendly manner. I do not recall any offensive language or overly explicit sexuality. The violence is kept to a minim with no blood or gore. However, as with most adventure movies there was some suspense and action violence though nothing of great concern. This movie really is a treasure for the entire family.

The only way to enjoy this movie is to treat it as a glitzy update to the 1930s silly adventure movies. The historical references make absolutely NO sense and the links to American history are dumber than idiotic, but here we are. I won't bother to list all the OBVIOUS historical errors because that would take pages of text. Just know that if you require plausibility in your silly adventure movies, you will be gravely disappointed in this farce.

Nicolas Cage is back as Ben Gates and this time is set to the task of redeeming an ancestor's reputation who has been implicated in the conspiracy to kill Lincoln. They follow clues all over the world that leads them, finally, to the Black Hills of South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore. What happens there you will have to watch the movie to discover. I mean, if you want outrageously impossible setups for your movie climaxes, this one should take the cake.

What is kind of irritating in the movie is that the Gates family, for all their intellectual abilities, has the emotional maturity of the Bickersons. Their petty differences seem contrived especially when they can come together so quickly and realize how much they do care about each other in a crisis.

Still, if you want to turn your brain off, and I mean OFF, and watch a glitzy bunch of silliness, this fits that bill.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Never a serious movie, just fun, action and escapist tales.
We love the set !
And it's not easy to please us. I only write reviews for excellent or
horrid things, and this was the former!!

National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets is a very enjoyable and fun romp, and an excellent follow-up to the original National Treasure. The entire cast has returned: Nicolas Cage as Ben Gates, Diane Kruger as Abigail, Jon Voight as Ben's father, and Justin Bartha as Riley. Added to the cast are Helen Mirren as Ben's mom, who, of course, holds the key to deciphering the map, and Ed Harris as the villain. Or is he? In the end, even he is redeemed.

Book of Secrets is both action packed and full of fun. The team is on another treasure hunt, searching for the legendary "city of gold." This film has romance, adventure, wild chases, narrow escapes, unreal situations, and ridiculous coincidences. What it does NOT have is sex, drugs, violence, blood, gore, bad language, or crude humor. Yes, the plot is full of holes, but so what? This movie is entertaining, funny, and perfect for the entire family. Just suspend your disbelief and enjoy it.

And yea! There are hints of a third adventure, one commissioned by POTUS. I, for one, cannot wait to see what is on page 47. Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long.

Certainly, one must see the original to know these characters, so the film really doesn't stand as it's own. Still, there was every bit as much intrigue, action & plot-twist, to keep me totally entertained. Ed Harris is here, though his character is poorly defined; good guy or bad guy (with a band of thugs ready to do his bidding)? Hmm. There's also Helen Mirren, full of class and sass. This is a sequel, so I guess all the really good stuff was created in the original; but, as a sequel, it succeeds, at least for me. My favorite character in the first was Riley (Justin Bartha) and his character is sufficiently augmented to create loads of charm, smarm and humor. I would pay to see a movie just about him. It's a great character played by a charming actor. UPDATE, 9/30/09: I just watched the much-maligned "Gigli", and Justin Bartha was brilliant. Almost as good as Leonardo in "Gilbert Grape".