National Treasure

I went to see the new Nicholas Cage movie, National Treasure, with my friend, Tylene. For those of you who haven't heard anything about this movie, the story, in a nutshell, is this -- Nicholas Cage plays a treasure hunter out to discover the treasure of the Knights Templar (now the Freemasons), which was hidden in America during colonial times. The Freemasons included many of the nation's founders, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. The key to finding the treasure is a invisible map hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Cage must steal the Declaration before his rival does, in order to protect it and the treasure.

I have to admit that I enjoyed this movie. Of course it's rather formulaic -- it's certainly not on the level of Raiders of the Lost Ark or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Then again, I enjoyed the whole Freemasons angle, which is very much in line with what I understand about the Freemasons. Of course, the REAL treasure in this movie is Cage's geeky, though spunky, comedic sidekick, Riley, played by Justin Bartha. It was difficult to focus on the rest of the movie because I kept wanting them to get back to Riley. Once I got home, I wondered, why the hell haven't I seen this guy in something before? The answer, my friends, is because the only other major film he was in was the colossal Affleck-Lopez disaster flick, Gigli. Well, at least at this point, Justin's post-Gigli career is off to a much better start than Ben Affleck's. I for one would MUCH rather sleep with Mr. Bartha here than I would with Ben Affleck. I'm hoping to see a lot more of Justin Bartha.