NATIONAL TREASURE - Blu-Ray (Disney/Bruckheimer 2004) Walt Disney Home Video

Jon Turteltaub’s National Treasure (2004) is mindlessly intriguing good fun - an action-adventure yarn that attempts to fabricate a mystery involving the Free Masons, the founding fathers and the constitution of the United States. The screenplay by Jim Kouf, Jim Cormac and Marianne Wibberley contains just enough truth to tantalize, while delivering its fanciful treasure hunt caper in the best tradition of the old Saturday matinee serials. The story begins one dark and stormy night in the attic of John Adams Gates (Christopher Plummer) where grandson, Ben (Hunter Gomez) has discovered a secret text containing clues to a fabulous treasure hidden somewhere in the United States by the Templar Knights of the Free Masons. Ben’s father Patrick (Jon Voight) dismisses granddad’s claim that the treasure actually exists, explaining to Ben how three generations of Gates have wasted their lives in the futile pursuit of this legend. Fast-forward to present day: an undaunted Ben (now played by Nicholas Cage) is in hot pursuit across the frozen Arctic for the next hidden key to the mystery – the S.S. Charlotte, a sunken ship, lost almost a century ago. On this mission, Ben is joined by friend and colleague, Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and devious treasure hunter, Ian Howe (Sean Bean) who has funded the expedition for personal gain. Upon discovering the Charlotte and yet another clue inside its hull pointing to a secret map on the back of the Declaration of Independence, Ian decides it is time to jettison his relationship with Ben and Riley by killing them both.

The plan – predictably – goes awry. Ian makes off with the next clue while Ben and Riley arrive in Washington D.C.  However, after confessing their wild tale to the FBI, the men are confronted by skepticism from National Archive curator, Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger). Ben makes a radical decision. He will steal the Declaration before Ian does in order to preserve the hidden location of its national treasure. And so, the chase for more clues and race against time begins. Caught somewhere between the pages of this contemporary Indiana Jones styled action/adventure flick is a romance desperately screaming to get out. Abigail inadvertently gets mixed up in the theft of the Declaration, thereafter perking her intrigue and providing the necessary, but predictable sexy subplot between her and Ben while everyone is relentlessly pursued by FBI investigator, Sandusky (Harvey Keitel).

To be certain, there are some marvelous set pieces scattered throughout – the best, involving the discovery of the cave of treasures. On the whole however, National Treasure slips into pedestrian escapism. Nicholas Cage is the art house version of Indiana Jones – a ‘passionate’ pseudo-archaeologist/sleuth whose deductive reasoning is seemingly working overtime. Cage’s ‘charm’ has always escaped me – his laid back ‘ho-hum…I’ve re-discovered America’ attitude becoming wafer thin midway through the picture, with barely an expressive outburst to suggest the gravity of the situations he continuously finds himself in.  Occasionally, we do get a look of pang or panic, but otherwise, Cage is phoning this one in. Even after he’s born witness to the epic and thought-numbing stored riches of a century’s old mystery, at last unfurled, Cage never allows his alter ego’s heartbeat to elevate above an occasional thump. Bartha is an amiable cohort – the trademarked foppish and stooge-like guy on the side to Ben’s pseudo-brilliance, although one wonders exactly why Ben would choose someone so inept to assist him on his recovery mission. Kruger is the weakest of the lot, playing insipid insolence that inexplicably melts away almost immediately after meeting Ben. Poor Sean Bean, typecast yet again as the baddie.  We’ll give it to Bean. He knows how to play a venomous evil-doer, menacing enough, if somewhat wasted in this near cameo performance that has him skulking around corners and chronically playing catch-up to Ben and his treasure protectors. In the final analysis, National Treasure isn’t a bad film; just not an exceptional or even unique one.

Disney Home Video’s Blu-Ray ironically doesn’t seem to best its Deluxe Edition 2-disc DVD as much as it ever so slightly tweaks and refines the image from that the exemplar effort in standard def. We’ll fathom a guess here; Disney is cribbing from the same remastered files it used for the DVD. Color fidelity and saturation never rises above average in this anamorphic 2:35:1 transfer. Contrast remains excellent. Blacks are deep and solid. Whites are pristine. There is a light smattering of film grain looking indigenous to its source, but occasional evidence someone has been tinkering at the controls to homogenize and smooth out its appearance digitally. The 5.1 DTS can be extremely aggressive during the action sequences, while dialogue remains crisp and frontal sounding throughout. Extras include everything that was previously made available on the 2-disc standard DVD - a handful of deleted scenes and alternate endings with or without director commentary, several informative featurettes, a trivia game, theatrical trailers and vintage interviews with cast and crew, plus two new extras exclusive to Blu-Ray: a history special on the real Declaration of Independence and a director-approved audio commentary. Recommended for fluff.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

3