Review Date: November 19, 2004
Country/Year: USA/2004
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Jon Turteltaub, Christina Steinberg
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Harvey Keitel, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean
Genre: Action/Adventure

What to do if you can’t get the rights to turn THE DAVINCI CODE into a movie? If you’re Disney, you strip the concept of religion and make a DAVINCI CODE knockoff. And while there’s nothing wrong with doing so, NATIONAL TREASURE doesn’t quite do enough with its wide-open premise.

Pairing with producer Jerry Bruckheimer for the fourth time, Nicolas Cage stars as Benjamin Gates, a third-generation treasure hunter, hopping the globe in search of a rumored bounty o’ historical booty buried by the nation’s founding fathers that his ancestors failed to find. When we meet him, he’s digging through the snow in the Arctic circle, unearthing a pirate ship.

The boat doesn’t contain the goods, but merely another clue – one that, as he deciphers, suggests the map to said loot is printed in invisible ink on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Upon this discovery, he’s double-crossed by his partner (GOLDENEYE villain Sean Bean), who leaves him and his wisecracking sidekick (Justin Bartha) for dead. Knowing that the bad guy will steal the Declaration and destroy it, Cage has no choice but to steal it in order to preserve it.
In the film’s best set piece – although following OCEAN’S ELEVEN and THE ITALIAN JOB, the heist comes off rather light – he does, but unwittingly pulls National Archives hottie Diane Kruger into the dangerous cat-and-mouse chase that results.
The hunt for the treasure – and away from the mean Bean – takes Cage and company clue by clue to all sorts of touristy stops in Washington D.C. Somehow, despite having the FBI after him for the theft of the Declaration, he’s able to hang out at all these unguarded public places with ease. It’s a reminder of the pre-9/11 glory days when people could shoot guns at each other on the city streets and no one would bat an eye.

Though it’s overlong, NATIONAL TREASURE feels underwritten, partly because it tries to be too many things, going from heist film to adventure film to chase film to action film, doing better in some areas than others, though not outright succeeding in any.

It’s by no means bad; it just is. I was entertained enough while watching it, even if I was never fully engaged. It doesn’t do the enough with the clues and the codes, wasting too much of its running time on repetitive getaways and close calls. Overall, this one squeaks by much the same.

In the end, Kruger presents Cage with a map to her vagina.

Review by Rod Lott.

USA, 2004
Director: Joe Roth
Score: **

Luther Krank (Tim Allen) decides to skip Christmas and head out for a luxury honeymoon cruise with his wife, Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis). No annual Christmas eve party, no sending of Christmas cards, no donations and no outdoor decorations for this family. The trouble is that the neighbours, led by one very agitated Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd)—the self appointed leader of the street—will not let the Kranks get away with it. This is the premise for the first three quarters of the film—supposedly one that should provide ample opportunity for a barrel of seasonal good cheer.  Based oddly enough on the novel SKIPPING CHRISTMAS by lawyer author John Grisham (A TIME TO KILL, THE CLIENT), an author not renowned for comedy, the film at least boasts Hollywood Christmastide veterans writer Chris Columbus (the Christmas HOME ALONE movies) and actor/comedian Tim Allen (the two SANTA CLAUSE movies). But as in the other Chris Columbus films, CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS is burdened with sappy sentiment in the last quarter in order to help viewers feel good for the season. 

But the film contains a fair share of funny moments. Tim Allen contorts a hilarious facial number after a Botox treatment—though director Joe Roth (the AMERICAN SWEETHEARTS comedy flop) over-milks it for what it is worth. Aykroyd is hilarious as the vengeful neighbor, be it screaming out carols or devising ways to get his own back on the Kranks. The other cast members are merely there for straight support. Jamie Lee Curtis is present just to bear punishment, M. Emmet Walsh to spur out insults and Julie Gonzalo (as the daughter) to look cuddly and innocent. Even comedians Cheech Marin and actor Jake Busey have nothing much funny to say or do. Many jokes (the first one, for example setting the pace for the worse that is to come, where Luther steps over a puddle of water only to have a car run over it behind him) and comedic set pieces (e.g. Nora chasing the tin of Hickory ham) fail miserably. But unbearable are the manipulative feel good bits that the viewer knows are coming in the last reel.

Making a Christmas film is no easy task and only a handful of yuletide films remain as faithful re-runs. CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS is one reason why viewers should be skipping Christmas films. The season often brings out the worst in filmmaking.

Review by Gilbert Seah.

Review Date: November 19, 2004
Country/Year: USA/2004
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Jon Turteltaub, Christina Steinberg
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Harvey Keitel, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean
Genre: Action/Adventure
Score: * out of 5

Plot: Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) is the latest member of a family of eccentrics who are convinced they have been entrusted with the secret of some ultra-secret masonic treasure. Ben is determined to find the treasure despite the protests of his father who is in denial about the whole thing. As he races to find the mysterious treasure, he has to also elude the FBI and his adversary (the guy who played Boromir in LORD OF THE RINGS). Conveniently, he also picks up a hot French chick (Diane Kruger) who works for the National Treasury and gradually is won over to his side.

Review: Disney announced some time ago that they were going to be concentrating on family films that were a little grittier than they had made in the past. If NATIONAL TREASURE is the formula by which these new films will be made, count me out.

This movie seems to have all the ingredients: a like-able but eccentric leading man, a super-hot love interest, a couple of explosions and a lot of running and jumping. But the movie never really gels. We never learn enough about these characters to care about them or get a sense that they are in any real danger. The treasure itself isn’t even all that compelling. And the bad guys don’t really seem all that bad.

The structure of the movie is almost a carbon copy of THE DAVINCI CODE. The story takes place over a very brief time period and the characters must rush from one clue to the next. In both stories they are on the run from government officials who are conveniently being commanded by a gruff but sympathetic leader. Unfortunately, the grand conspiracy in NATIONAL TREASURE just isn’t INTERESTING. The Knights Templar in this movie aren’t covering up some deep dark secret… it’s just a bunch of gold. Also, the clues that lead from place to place are utterly ridiculous and never make you believe that any of this could actually be true.

Nicolas Cage is obviously as clueless about what is going on in the script as I was. In most of the scenes it seems as if he is sedated with some kind of mild tranquilizer. It’s almost as if he is aware that he really does not belong in this movie. Jon Voight and Harvey Keitel are similarly out of place. I was unaware that Keitel was even cast in this movie and when he appeared on screen I actually laughed. Diane Kruger is about as cute as they come, but there’s nothing for her to do here but run around and get turned on by U.S. history.

Usually movies produced by Jerry Bruckheimer at least have are big, slick and pretty to look at. This can’t be said for NATIONAL TREASURE which both looks and feels like a drawn-out mediocre episode of ALIAS. Director Jon Turtletaub doesn’t have a clue when it comes to directing action or using slow motion for dramatic impact.

Obviously Disney was going for a good, clean action movie for the whole family. The result is a movie that is about as bland as they come. The structure is there, but there’s no real peril, dread or sex appeal. You’d be better off staying home and re-watching RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

Review by Christopher Sharpe.

USA, 2004
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Score: ****

Antoine Fuqua’s (THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS, TRAINING DAY and the recent TEARS OF THE SUN) concert documentary is a record of one evening at the Radio City Music Hall in 2003 when a host of artists of several generations band together to pay tribute to the blues. So what are the blues? How did it originate? What powers the blues? Director Fuqua combines archival footage, backstage going-ons, interviews and performance rehearsals to shed light on the mystery of the blues.

The sheer energy of the performers rubs off on the viewer. When this happens – which, fortunately is quite often – the film soars. The best scene has Ruth Brown, Macy Gray and Clarence Brown doing their thing together on stage. Other highlights include Macy Gray crooning HOUND DOG and watching the originators of blues perform alongside the young ones.  The featured performer list is impressive and includes Honeyboy Edwards, Keb’ Mo’, Natalie Cole, the Neville Brothers, Buddy Guy and Mavis Staples among others. (Bill Cosby has a guest appearance.)

Fuqua tastefully blends in racial and poverty issues – the problems of times past that inspired the blues. His interviews and banter with the older folk like B.B. King (with his guitar named Lucille) and Ruth Brown are the most enlightening. We learn of the past in the bayous, where hand-made guitars were created out of water fluid cans. We learn of the great artists, many of which have gone through hard times, drugs, poverty, and health problems like strokes and heart attacks. Yet they survive to tell their story. Nothing could have prevented the birth of the era. Through old film footage, signs like ‘colored entrance’ can be seen painted on the wall of concert venues. Blues were really dedicated to men only, Ruth Brown says to the camera at one point – but you women also listen up!

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE ends appropriately with a high octane performance by eighty year-old B.B. King. The viewer will beyond doubt walk away rich on the blues experience – no doubt the coolest experience ever. The title – LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE - derives from this one time electrifying concert experience that might probably never happen again.

Review by Gilbert Seah.

Spain, 2004
Director: Brad Anderson
Score: ***

“Are you ok?”
“Don’t I look ok?”
The opening dialogue between Trevor Reznick (Christian Bale, who shed some 50 pounds for this role) and his girlfriend indicates that Trevor is oblivious of what is going on around him.  He is emaciated, pale and suffers from insomnia. hings get worse, especially at his job as a machinist. While daydreaming, he causes a co-worker to lose his hand. Believing that his co-workers are plotting against him, he goes berserk until the truth dawns upon him.

An interesting though not novel plot! Though films like MEMENTO have dealt with similar issues, director Brad Anderson (SESSION 9) and writer Scott Kosar (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake) still creates suspense, scares with a certain tenderness. Trevor finds comfort in the arms of Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the hooker with a heart of gold. Cinematographer Xavier Giménez shot most of the scenes in a greyish blue depicting a pessimistic world where the sun never shines. But Anderson’s film is not without its humour. Trevor is constantly reading Dostoevsky’s THE IDIOT. The dead pan Kafka-ish humour and look works well with the plot.

Anderson’s MACHINIST succeeds as a chilling, gripping and satisfying late night flick.

Review by Gilbert Seah.