Posted on 01/13/2008 5:46:57 PM PST by winstonwolf33
DB here:
More informative about American history than Fahrenheit 9/11. More brain-teasing, and far more enjoyable, than I’m Not There. Less graphically violent than almost any other movie you’re likely to see. What else could I be talking about but National Treasure: Book of Secrets?
Jerry Bruckheimer is, in my view, the most astute producer now working in Hollywood. I could cite many proofs, but let’s stick just to the first National Treasure. Here’s a movie with no pop music, no cusswords, no naked ladies, no drugs, no screwing, and scarcely any violence. (One bad guy accidentally falls to his death down a deep black hole.) When it came out—you can verify this by asking Kristin—I said that it was the ideal movie for grandparents to take the grandkids to. The man who gave us Bad Boys and CSI has realized that there’s a market niche for the PG-rated action film. So we get an amiable romp that mixes together Freemasons, the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, Ben Franklin, and for all I know Judge Crater, Atlantis, and the Lindbergh baby.
My colleagues, students, and wife think I’m nuts to like National Treasure. In defense I could point to evocative images like the one surmounting today’s entry, the superimposition of Grandpa Gates’ eye on a pyramid as a condensation of the Masonic/ monetary/ paternity motifs swarming through the movie. But I needn’t strain so far. The pleasures are more elemental.
(Excerpt) Read more at davidbordwell.net ...
You’re always looking in the background in these plots.....Trying to see the ONE thing they want you to see. So many images...Very thought provoking and fun....Like being in a maze
All our GW ceremonies after the Revolution were deemed “Masonic”. Over and over and over....even after his death.
The PG action film is a rarity and the good ones are far fewer.
Then again I really liked "300" so what do I know?
The first one was very good. I’ll wait until the 2nd is out on DVD. It’s just one of those movies that reels you in right away.
National Treasure was a lousy movie.
These movies do just what folks want a movie to do: entertain them.
“These movies do just what folks want a movie to do: entertain them.”
And their good clean fun with no hidden messages, ulterior motives, or polarizing a-hole actors.
The first was great. The second one not so much.
The first National Treasure is right up there with Raiders of the Lost Ark as a clean, family-safe action-adventure. I’ve watched it at least 3 times and still haven’t caught how Ben knew that Charlotte was a ship hidden under ice....
The second was not quite as good - but still good. The plot is more contrived, the puzzles and clues not as well constructed, but I’ll buy the DVD and watch it again - never did like the Indiana Jones sequels, but this one is worth it. And there is an obvious clue that at least one more is coming - I’ll go see it when it comes out.
I like the history, I like the puzzles and the fast paced action, I like having a smart-aleck techie geek doing his part, and I like looking at Diane Kruger. I rarely get that many “likes” from a movie these days.
I’ll rent the second movie just to see Diane Kruger again.
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