I'm still trying to figure out how such a great cast and fun plot idea could turn into such a dull and unengaging movie.
A ★★ review of National Treasure (2004)
There’s a ton of stuff in this movie that ought to make it an enjoyable experience. The cast — Nicholas Cage, Sean Bean, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight in particular — should make it a shoo-in. The subject — conspiracy theories and Freemasons and treasure-hunting — ought to make it riviting. The father-son and friends-betrayed and what-really-important-to-you themes should make it involving and thought-provoking. But it all just sort of falls flat…
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I loved it. Not so much the second one, but the first ranks up there as one of my all timers.
Two words: Nicholas Cage.
Nicholas Cage did a competent job, but he ends pretty much as he starts out, and doesn't really give us much as a character along the way.
If I'm going to watch a Nicholas Cage Disney flick, give me Sorcerer's Apprentice.
He's just always struck me as such a generic style action hero movie star that I barely pay attention to things like this. Action is not his strength, he just comes off too wimpy.
He can carry an intensity about him, but that was really lacking here, too.
Dull and unengaging?
This is a GREAT movie. I stop and watch at least part of it every time it is on. One of my all-time favorites.
+TV-aholic "It is not best that we should all think alike; it is differences of opinion that make horse races." — Mark Twain