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	National Treasure
	Jon Turteltaub Nicolas Cage, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Sean Bean, Justin Bartha, Christopher Plummer 2004		As if it was designed as a theme-park ride rather than developed as a movie, "National Treasure" has prefab action sequences and a mystical story arc built around the hunt for some lost plunder. Its makers, including a market-wise exec at Disney Studios, wanted to crossbreed an Indiana Jones-style quest for booty with a heist film, and coat the result with a patina of good old patriotic Americana. What resulted is awfully silly, and clunky, too. Nicolas Cage — usually good for unique emoting, over-the-top flamboyance, or out-and-out lunacy — is gifted treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates. This obsessed adventurer is dedicated to cleaning up his family's reputation, tarnished by the futile, century-long pursuit of an incalculably valuable cache of relics secreted away years ago by the Founding Fathers. To reverse the Gates fortunes, Benjamin must figure out the whereabouts of the stash. This may require that he steal the Declaration of Independence, containing possible clues to the treasure, before his former-colleague-turned-sworn-enemy (Sean Bean) does, and before an FBI agent (Harvey Keitel, looking bored) and task force stop either of them. Cage is so laid back here that it often seems like he's wondering if he left the stove on back home. In some questionable casting, slight, diaphanous (as in barely there) German actress Diane Kruger plays the bigwig in charge of U.S. government archives.


	Wednesday, December 18, 2024





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