National Treasure: Book of Secrets

It's almost the same as the first installment but the larger than life finale simply forces me to give it an extra star. I just love golden cities. I just love golden cities. Plus, for the first time in a long while, Cage is finally in a pretty good movie, and if you take National Treasure as an appetizer for the fourth Indiana Jones (the new trailer is great, by the way) you'll spend quite a pleasant two hours with it. (04.05.2008)

Even though chatty like Fidel Castro at a convention, it moves along quickly enough that you don't even have time to think about the tons of historical and scripted bullshit, and that’s not really the point. It's just as stupid and only slightly funnier than any episode of the Relic Hunter series, with the difference that Tia Carrera is replaced by A-list actors and that Jerry Bruckheimer dug deep in his pocket again. Nicolas Cage's lightning-fast deductions would make Sherlock Holmes pale with envy if he wasn’t facepalming. (13.05.2008)

First off, let's look at the academic heroes using the method of association. Indiana Jones: whip and swing. Robert Langdon: words and fat. Ben Gates: boredom and a goat's lip. Secondly, the same breathless melancholy, which receives the second star for the patriotic fun with the president and the stylish bastard Ed Harris. You don’t often hear this much bloated gossip; even Rolko Emmerich would envy it. (08.10.2009)

The same old sterile approach a second time round. An incredibly dumb plot, illogical behavior by characters, routineer directing without any scenes that stick in your mind, ridiculous deductions and “dialogs" - all that remained the same. Again it tries to be for the whole family, but fundamentally again for nobody. Perhaps maybe only the wannabe funny helper gets on my nerves much more than last time. And yes, it is equally entertaining as part one was. As movie to relax to, that you forget instantly, this works decently. However, it doesn’t even come close to satisfying those who like adventure and so it just leaves you with the irresistible urge to put on a proper adventure movie. Ideally Indy. (05.01.2008)

Turteltaub's family, led by the radiant Cage, adds a higher speed compared to an already solid first part, rushing towards another treasure and this time even justice. Despite occasional slip-ups in logic, everything happens at such a killer pace that I couldn't catch my breath. I want to believe that despite years of delay, the Gates family will make it to the third installment. (24.05.2008)