Genre Guesstimation – National Treasure (2004)

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

This month’s Genre has been chosen by Damien of Riley Central we will be reviewing our favorite Adventure Movies.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of May (today) by sending them to damienadventure@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box!

Great choice Damien!

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of Adventure Films…

“If there’s something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.” – Ben Gates

Number of Times Seen – 2 (20 Apr 2006 and 23 May 2016)

Brief Synopsis – A treasure hunter must follow his family dream and try and figure out a two hundred year old mystery that will lead to a treasure hidden by the founding fathers.

My Take on it – I have always been a fan of conspiracy theory movies and books and this one was done extremely well.

The ways that the clues are set up for us is very Dan Brown-esq and I was totally captivated throughout because of the way they weave fact and fiction together here.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of Nicholas Cage, but he does a pretty job here and it’s easy to believe him to be a crazy conspiracy theory nut.

The use of Masons and the Templars make it feel even more plausible (even though I know it really isn’t).

Sean Bean is great as the bad guy and Justin Bartha is amazingly funny as the sidekick / comic relief.

I heard that the original cut was over 4 hours long, I would love to see that version!

Bottom Line – Great conspiracy theory film that works really well.  Despite not being a huge fan of Cage, I must admit that he was pretty good in this one.  The Dan Brown-like mystery captivated me because it relies so much on historical clues. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – While Gates is attempting to decipher the first clue on board the Charlotte, after Shaw suggests “Prison,” Riley says, “Albuquerque. See, I can do it too. Snorkel.” This is a reference to the 1998 ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic song, “Albuquerque,” which talks about a man’s journey to Albuquerque with his lucky snorkel. (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Close, but as much as I enjoyed this movie, it isn’t good enough to be among my favorites of the genre.

Rating – Globe Worthy

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