National Leisure

I really only watched National Treasure so that I could watch National Treasure II -and I can't remember why I wanted to watch that.

So, Nick Cage is a treasure hunting archeologist, like Indiana Jones but not so swashbuckling. I'm not one of the Nick Cage haters - I rather like him, especially if he is playing a lighter role. He can do emotional pain well enough, but I think he does better when you don't have to take him seriously. He is pretty convincing in this role as an academic with an adventurous side - rough and ready, but still a nerd at heart. Cage is pretty believable as a nerd.

The McGuffin of the movie is the family legend of an immense treasure, and every clue Cage tracks down leads to another clue. They lampshade this ruthlessly - Cage's dad keeps saying there is no treasure, just more clues. The clues tend to be in difficult places, like in invisible ink on the back of the Declaration of Independence. So Cage has to break into a number of national monuments, or into the system of tunnels and caverns beneath the nation's capital.

Annnnnd... this is around when I fell asleep. I woke up with the DVD menu running - it may have been running for hours, fooling me into believing the movie was still going and I shouldn't bother opening my eyes yet.

But, you know, I kind of enjoyed NT. It was mostly a traditional kind of action movie - a little aimless, maybe a little too long, but pleasant enough. So I'll give NT2 a try.