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List Price: $29.99 | | Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
Salesrank: 890
Released: May 20, 2008 |
| Our Price: $9.00 |
| Used Price: $2.56 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) sets out to find the lost 18 pages from the diary of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. One of the 18 missing pages has been discovered by Jeb Wilkinson (Ed Harris). On that page are the names of the Lincoln assassination conspirators. Thomas Gates, Ben Gates' great-great-grandfather, is listed on the page. After discovering this, Ben does not want Thomas Gates to be remembered "as a conspirator in the assassination of the man who brought this nation together." His quest to clear his family's name leads to unexpected twists and turns. Agent Sadusky (Harvey Keitel) tells Ben that a secret book has the information he needs. The president's "book of secrets" holds documents, for presidents' eyes only, of all the nations secrets; from the truth behind the JFK conspiracy, the missing minutes from the Watergate tapes, and Area 51. When Ben's request to see the book is denied, he says he must kidnap the president. Each clue leads him closer "to a discovery that the world isn't ready to believe."
Description of National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets (Widescreen):
Less engrossing than its 2004 predecessor National Treasure, Jon Turteltaub’s busy sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets is nevertheless a colorful and witty adventure, another race against overwhelming odds for the answer to a historical riddle. Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage), the treasure hunter who feverishly sought, in the first film, the whereabouts of a war chest hidden by America’s forefathers, is now charged with protecting family honor. When a rival (Ed Harris) offers alleged proof that Gates’ ancestor, Thomas Gates, was not a Civil War-era hero but a participant in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Ben and his father (Jon Voight) and crew (Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger) hopscotch through Paris, London, Washington DC, and South Dakota to gather evidence refuting the claim. The film is most fun when the hunt, as in National Treasure, squeezes Ben into such impossible situations as examining twin desks in the queen’s chambers in Buckingham Palace and the White House’s Oval Office, or kidnapping an American president (Bruce Greenwood) for a few minutes of frank talk. Helen Mirren, the previous year's Oscar winner for Best Actress, wisely joins the cast of a likely hit film as Ben’s archaeologist mother, long-estranged from Voight’s character but as feisty as the rest of the family. Returning director Turteltaub takes excellent advantage of his colorful backdrops in European capitals and the always-eerie Mount Rushmore, and oversees some wildly imaginative sets for this dramedy’s feverish third act in an audacious and completely unexpected, legendary setting. If National Treasure: Book of Secrets doesn’t feel quite as crisp and unique as its predecessor, it is still ingenious and wry enough to laugh a bit at itself. --Tom Keogh
Stills from National Treasure: Book of Secrets (click for larger image)
National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets (Widescreen) Reviews:
Cool artifacts in interesting places 
2009-12-24 - 4 of 5 stars for the adventure movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets. This is the second installment of the Benjamin Franklin Gates story. Same basic characters as NT1 but a whole new story. Same formula, follow clues to uncover treasure. Of course there are rival treasure hunter on the same quest. In this case, the rivals want to prevent Gates from being successful for purposes of hiding the truth about a historical event. This treasure hunt has lots of good action, some surprises and some way-out-yeah-right things (such as, kidnapping the President of the USA). A very well crafted story with some cool artifacts that all leads to a great ending. I do highly recommend this movie; fun to watch; kid friendly (its Disney) yet adult interesting. I do like Cage in this role and hope to see more NT movies. Voight is OK in his role but not as strong as Cage.
This is a great Saturday afternoon pass-the-popcorn movie.
right on 
2009-12-20 - Thank you! Recieved promptly and as noted when reviewed to buy. (like new condition) also good price. keep up the good work! makes buying online a pleasant experience.
Political Correctness Amidst the Fun 
2009-12-19 - As is typical in leftist Hollywood, when emboldened by the success of a particular film, they often follow up with a sequel that tries, amidst the entertainment, to instruct the audience in leftist propaganda.
In the last 45 minutes of this film the audience is exposed to a pre-Colombian, Native North American, "City of Gold" discovered by the main characters; an unpopulated city protected by elaborate defense mechanism including numerous wheel-like devices, and of course tons upon tons of smelted gold, from which the city is built.
Apparently, this entire segment is intended to build upon leftist's myths that pre-Colombian Native North Americans, were, if truth be told, noble savages who built great civilizations using advanced technologies. Moreover, that in truth, these Native Americans weren't such dolts as to not value genuine treasure, such as precious metals. Building upon this myth is important to leftists, because the more they build up pre-Colombian Native Americans, the more what the "whites" supposedly did to them appears horrific.
While not an expert on pre-Colombian Native North Americans, I am pretty sure the evidence is settled that these peoples never advanced beyond the Stone Age; meaning they never smelted metal, including gold, so they could hardly have built an entire city with it; moreover they never developed the wheel, so the elaborate mechanisms that guard the "City of Gold" are something equivalent to a reader of this review coming home to discover that the family cat had occupied his day repairing your broken flat-screen television. Also, while I am less sure of the following, I don't think there is much evidence to support that these people ever attached value to precious metals or stones (they sold Manhattan Island for, among other things, glass beads) so the idea of them building a city out of gold seems as likely as that they were found to have at one time to be experimenting with the fission possibilities of North American uranium.
Nevertheless, for its entertainment value, if you have a couple hours to kill, this is not a bad movie. Just make sure to install your personal anti-brainwashing device first.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
2009-10-12 - A very good movie maybe even better than the first. The bonus material is worth spending the extra money for.
Liked it
2009-10-05 - I really liked the second in the National Treasure series I thought they did a good job and Nicholas Cage is a great actor.
