Product Description

Coming from a long line of treasure hunters, Benjamin Franklin Gates is given clues by his ancestors leading to a valuable and mysterious treasure hidden during America's revolution and sought after by both his enemies and the FBI.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG
Release Date: 22-AUG-2006
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #539 in DVD
• Brand: CAGE,NICOLAS
• Released on: 2005-05-03
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 131 minutes

Amazon.com
Like a Hardy Boys mystery on steroids, National Treasure offers popcorn thrills and enough boyish charm to overcome its rampant silliness. Although it was roundly criticized as a poor man's rip-off of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Da Vinci Code, it's entertaining on its own ludicrous terms, and Nicolas Cage proves once again that one actor's infectious enthusiasm can compensate for a multitude of movie sins. The contrived plot involves Cage's present-day quest for the ancient treasure of the Knights Templar, kept secret through the ages by Freemasons past and present. Finding the treasure requires the theft of the Declaration of Independence (there are crucial treasure clues on the back, of course!), so you can add "caper comedy" to this Jerry Bruckheimer production's multi-genre appeal. Nobody will ever accuse director Jon Turtletaub of artistic ambition, but you've got to admit he serves up an enjoyable dose of PG-rated entertainment, full of musty clues, skeletons, deep tunnels, and harmless adventure in the old-school tradition. It's a load of hokum, but it's fun hokum, and that makes all the difference. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
There's a pretty good gimmick with these DVD extras aimed squarely at the pre-teen/early teen audience that ate up this film. Each of the extras (a standard making-of featurette, an alternate ending, and an interesting deleted scene) is followed by a clue afterwards. Decipher the clues and unlock the next set of extras: a nice bit on real treasure hunters, an awful piece on the Knights Templar, and one gem for kids: "Riley Poole's Decode this!" Actor Justin Bartha reprises his role (Nic Cage's techno-sidekick) and lectures a bit on the cooler side of language history and code-breaking with a few simple interactive games. If you get through it all, you unlock a hidden feature, a trivia track. Thankfully, those who do not want to go on the treasure hunt can access these features by reading the printed insert. Also thankfully, director Jon Turteltaub's enthusiasm always makes DVD extras more watchable than most. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker
A somewhat entertaining treasure-hunt movie-suspension of disbelief required. Nicolas Cage stars as an explorer out to find some buried riches left behind by the Founding Fathers. The would-be crackling dialogue is damply delivered, but there's fun to be had in the director Jon Turteltaub's constantly shifting monument locations (from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia) and the puzzle-work clues that move the plot. The film is playfully pointless. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Great Beginning
This is a great start to, hopefully,a new movie franchise. Nicolas Cage is perfect for the role of Benjamin Franklin Gates.

Extremely entertaining
My first exposure to National Treasure was actually the sequel, National Treasure 2. So I had to go back and see how it all started.

This movie is an extremely well done, albeit short, flick that has some good humor and history behind it that makes it one of my favorites. It's not conspiratorial, although the idea behind the movies that certain centuries old mysteries can be solved is really intriguing. This movie follows the traditional story that the treasure the Templar Knights found was passed from them to the Freemasons who hid it to keep it from the British during the American Revolution. I'm not certain all of the history they included is correct, but unless you go looking for errors it doesn't make that much difference and the speculation about the treasure is believable in my opinion. If it is correct, there are some really interesting tidbits in here about the founding of New York and the history of the founding fathers. Nicholas Cage gives an extremely believable performance and has a few funny lines to boot. It's one of the best roles he's done in my opinion.

After watching the first two films, I just hope there's a National Treasure 3 in our future.

Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts.
If you are an edge-of-your-seat adventure fan, this is the movie for you. With action, excitment, and nonstop thrills, you can't go wrong. Nicolas Cage stars as Ben Gates, a man who has been obsessed from childhood with finding a legendary treasure which has been hidden for centuries. However, to find the treasure Ben and his sidekick, Riley Poole, must steal America's most precious document, the Declaration of Independence, while at the same time staying ahead of a gang commanded by Ben's former friend and treasure hunter. As a bonus, you will get a glimpse into key artifacts, documents, and places of the American Christian Revolution. Trust me, this is a movie you do not want to miss. Join me next time for my review on National Treasure 2 Book of Secrets.