National Treasure: Book of Secrets Reviews
Top Critic
This just might be the silliest movie ever to feature three Academy Award winners.
Leave it to coproducer Jerry Bruckheimer to revive the Indiana Jones cycle without the period setting, the camp elements, or Spielberg's efficiency; director Jon Turteltaub just plods along.
This sequel is what you would expect: If you liked the original, you'll probably enjoy this retread. But be warned: It bogs down in a drawn-out scene near the end.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
As much as you want to applaud the movie's winking commitment to its own Looney Tunes logic, it's frustrating when lazy and illogical plot devices are used like cattle prods.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
The movie's convoluted hide-and-seek plot also demands a White House break-in that makes about as much sense as subprime mortgage rates.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
This American history-themed action thriller doesn't get many points for realism, but it makes up ground in so many other areas that you probably won't care.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Is it possible to enjoy Book of Secrets? Obviously, although its lunacy requires a level of suspension of disbelief that some will be incapable of attaining.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
The hyperactive sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets sends its archaeologist hero on a globetrotting quest that might have been devised after a long night of Wikipedia surfing.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
It's another flick about maps, landmarks and buried treasure that makes The Da Vinci Code look like Tolstoy.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
All you can do is sit and watch, and wish there was more wonder.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
The film is baffling -- the scheme that links the conspirators throughout three centuries would flummox the Illuminati -- but as a sort of vacation scrapbook of the lovely places where the cast spent last summer, it's pleasant enough.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Tepid and predictable though the action largely is, Bartha provides intermittent comic relief and Mirren is her usual droll self.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
This National Treasure sequel, like its 2004 original, is a dumb movie about smart people that uses just enough historical trivia to make you feel like you're bettered by the experience.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
As long as it's galloping along, the movie's perfectly good popcorn -- in itself a rarity these days -- but eventually you get down to the burnt kernels at the bottom of the bag.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
As with the first movie, Book of Secrets leaps around like a choppy travel documentary.
This diminishing-returns sequel sends Nicolas Cage on another quest to strike it rich, get young auds excited about history and solve puzzles that are generally less stimulating than yesterday's Sudoku.
Everything has been significantly amped up -- bigger, louder, further removed from reality -- but it also feels that much more forced. Cage and Kruger seem like they're not having much fun this time around, and Bartha still gets the best throwaway lines.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
This second Jerry Bruckheimer National Treasure adventure, feebly directed by Jon Turtletaub, is no better than the first -- which means it will probably be creamed by critics and make a jillion dollars.
Full Review
| Original Score: C
It's virtually the same movie with new locations. Oh, plus Helen Mirren. Not a bad addition, but the popcorn fun is gone.
All you want from a movie like this, really, is a little brainless fun, and it keeps holding out on you.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
It's all pretty inane if you stop to think about it, but director Joe Turteltaub works tirelessly to make sure we don't.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
This is a Mouth Agape Movie, during which your mouth hangs open in astonishment at one preposterous event after another.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Let's not kid anyone here. This franchise is all about dumb fun.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
If you can put all sense of realism on hold, you'll be rewarded with a moderately pleasing diversion.
It's wonderful how much real history they sandwich into this ham and cheese on wry.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
