NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS Two-Disc Gold Collector’s Edition
© Walt Disney Video
Mania Grade: B-
Rated: PG
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Jon Voight, Helen Mirren, Ed Harris
Written By: Marianne Wibberley and Cormac Wibberley
Directed By: Jon Turteltaub
Distributor: Walt Disney Video
Original Year of release: 2008
Extras: Audio Commentary, Deleted Scenes, The Treasure Reel, Secrets of a Sequel, The Book of Secrets: On Location, Street Stunts: Creating the London Chase, Inside the Library of Congress, Underground Action, Cover Story: Crafting the Presidents’ Book, Evolution of a Golden City, Knights of the Golden Circle, Easter Eggs (Blue-Ray features are identical).
Buy it now!
Rated: PG
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Jon Voight, Helen Mirren, Ed Harris
Written By: Marianne Wibberley and Cormac Wibberley
Directed By: Jon Turteltaub
Distributor: Walt Disney Video
Original Year of release: 2008
Extras: Audio Commentary, Deleted Scenes, The Treasure Reel, Secrets of a Sequel, The Book of Secrets: On Location, Street Stunts: Creating the London Chase, Inside the Library of Congress, Underground Action, Cover Story: Crafting the Presidents’ Book, Evolution of a Golden City, Knights of the Golden Circle, Easter Eggs (Blue-Ray features are identical).
Buy it now!
DVD Review: NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS
By: Robert T. TrateDate: Thursday, May 15, 2008
When last we left Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage), Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and Patrick Gates (Jon Voight), they had found the Knights Templar treasure. With a great box office gross to boot, for the cast of Disney’s National Treasure a sequel was inevitable.
While giving a lecture about their ancestor, Thomas Gates (Joel Gretsch), who helped catch the Lincoln assassination conspirators, a man comes forward with evidence that says Thomas was actually one of the conspirators. Looking to clear their family name, Ben and his father begin to unravel the clues behind the evidence and in the process unlock a secret to ancient American Indian culture.
Besides having an incredible story, the cast of National Treasure: Book of Secrets is phenomenal for a sequel. All of the principle cast members return, however it is the addition of The Queen herself, Helen Mirren, who adds a new dimension to film. Mirren plays Ben Gates’ mother, Prof. Emily Appleton, and estranged wife to Voight’s Patrick Gates. Early in the film we learn that Ben and Abigail did not live happily after as the first film alluded to. The cliché sequel template of estranged lovers that will inevitably get back together was already in motion. In National Treasure: Book of Secrets the focus shifts from the tired romance frivolity of Ben and Abigail and adjusts to letting the film be about Patrick and Emily. Strange that the Midnight Cowboy and the Queen take center stage in this adventure film but it works. Voight and Mirren steal all their scenes and bring up Cage’s acting as well.
Ghost Rider was Cage’s last big hit and before that it was National Treasure. His big goofy smile and nervous angst that Cage displays awkwardly in films like Lord of War and The Weather Man work in National Treasure. A book worm turned adventurer, Ben Gates is the part he was born to play. Bad hair cut aside, Cage is likable, funny and even heroic. One has to ask, is it the roles he picks or is it the movies he’s offered? If the Ben Gates character in Nicholas Cage would appear at the theater more often perhaps his films would do better at the box office.
Special Features:
National Treasure: Book of Secrets in many cases is this generation’s Indiana Jones. It is good family fun that is not only entertaining but educational as well. By taking tiny pieces of history and tying them together, Jon Turteltaub, Marianne Wibberley and Cormac Wibberley create a fast paced captivating film that never gets boring. Many of the historical events in the story actually stay with you and create a need to learn more about them. Sadly this DVD does not reflect the love of history that the Gates family has.
The special features are lackluster at best and nothing more than HBO time filler documentaries. It is sad that the film came with two discs because all the special features of historical importance could have fit on a single disc. There are a few deleted scenes. One is worth watching. Several stunt sequences and their break downs are fine but when it came to the juicy features like “Knights of the Golden Circle” and the “President’s Book” they were practically non-existent.
Here was a chance to actually have History Channel type documentaries that could accompany the film. Instead it is nothing more than a rehash of film footage and actors telling us what we already know from watching the movie. I guess the adage is that I should do the research on these items myself however these small snippets are barely worth playing.
'While giving a lecture about their ancestor, Thomas Gates (Joel Gretsch), who helped catch the Lincoln assassination conspirators, a man comes forward with evidence that says Thomas was actually one of the conspirators.'
English, look into it.