National Treasure (2004)

So this movie is silly. Incredibly silly. But then, that's not really an issue. Any film that opens by linking the Knights Templar to the Masons to the Founding Fathers clearly isn't shooting for anything other than sheer ludicrousness. I can accept that a film would want to be this silly on purpose -- after all, I watch movies like Hookers in a Haunted House. What sticks in my craw is that this is not only staggeringly silly but staggeringly stupid, yet there's all that historical bromidery and "Jeopardy!" facts and Nicolas Cage being the most psychic man alive. It's like your parents telling you to eat your vegetables before you can have dessert, but then dessert comes (in the form of this film's wan action scenes) and it's something unexciting like Red Velvet Cake and then a news report comes on the television saying that vegetables really aren't good for you anyway. Lay off the history books, stupid people.

Grade: C-