I can’t decide if this was enjoyable crap or utter crap. A bit of both, I suppose. Mostly the latter. Bigger budget than the first, and even more preposterous plot. Helen Mirren is humiliated by the awful dialogue. Nicholas Cage plays the role seriously, and there is an intensely annoying subplot of the dysfunctional relationships between Cage and Kruger, and Voight and Mirren. That said, the sidekick, Riley (Justin Bartha), is a lot of fun, and some of the set piece action sequences are good. On reflection, this is utter crap. Even the kids thought it sucked.
Luke Y Thompsn had a simliar brief moment of doubt it wasn’t crap before recovering:
NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS Oscar winner in hideous haircut? Check. Love interest with foreign accent? Yup, that too. Insanely convoluted treasure hunt involving multiple ancient clues to a historical mystery? You know it. But this ain’t The Da Vinci Code, folks, and the reason you can tell is that it’s actually quite entertaining. Perhaps not so much if you still think of Nicolas Cage as the serious method actor of yesteryear, but if you’ve learned to enjoy his current incarnation of shticks and tics, bugging out his eyes, smiling creepily at inappropriate moments, and RANDOMLY SHOUTING certain words for NO APPARENT REASON… this is for you. Cage’s Benjamin Gates is so insanely patriotic that when his ancestor is smeared as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination, he sets out to prove otherwise by kidnapping the president and striding into the top-secret areas of pretty much every major national landmark, which is doubly preposterous given how conspicuous he is with all the yelling and wildly demonstrative hand gestures. If you can put all sense of realism on hold, however, you’ll be rewarded with a moderately pleasing diversion, featuring Justin Bartha as the genuinely amusing wiseass sidekick and Ed Harris doing a charmingly awful Old South accent. Also, Helen Mirren’s here, as Cage’s inexplicably English mother — Oscars apparently just don’t pay the bills. (Citywide) (Luke Y. Thompson)