National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (DVD)

There are three types of sequel in the world, it seems to me: those rare few that improve upon the original; those that are pretty much just the original all over; and the sad majority that take a successful movie and try to make it BIGGER! BETTER! FASTER!... and largely just serve to magnify all the flaws of the first outing. National Treasure: Book of Secrets manages to fall wholeheartedly into the final category. Dang! If you've seen the original NT movie then you know completely what to expect here: history buff Ben Gates (did he have a real job before becoming a treasure hunter? I can't recall!) stumbles across some fantastical secret, and is soon jetting ...

These days, I approach Nicolas Cage films with a certain dread. Recently, I've watched so many films with him in the starring role that they've either been very mediocre or truly terrible, and I still haven't seen his remake of "The Wicker Man". Heaven forbid that I ever do. In fact I can probably put his career down to two movies that have actually been any good: his role opposite Sean Connery in the action-packed "The Rock", and under the direction of the Coen Brothers in "Raising Arizona". These are both now way over ten years old. Of his recent efforts, there were the boring ...

In an action movie series its very rare that the sequel is ever as good or better than the original but this is just as good as National Treasure. Again we have lots of puzzles, hidden maps and travelling this time all over the world to find The Lost City Of Gold just to clear the name of Ben's great great grandfather who has been accused of being the mastermind behind the assassination of President Lincoln. Ideas that places like The Oval Office in The White House and The Queen's Private Chambers in Buckingham Palace would be so easy to gain access to are totally laughable and unrealistic, likewise the shelves of The Library Of Congress. Its not ...