Tracking down the missing pages of John Wilkes Booth’s diary is the first step in treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates’s plan to uncover a worldwide conspiracy.

I went into the theater expecting absolutely nothing but hoping that National Treasure: Book of Secrets would at least not suck. It didn’t. I hadn’t seen the first one and was only willing to see the this sequel because my sister said she liked the first installment. National Treasure: Book of Secrets is a fun, frivolous movie that is really an ideal thing to watch on a day like New Year’s. Why not ring in the New Year with a movie starring Nicholas Cage, John Voight, Ed Harris and the incomparable Helen Mirren playing patriotic treasure hunters.

The film started out a bit heavy on the patriotism side and Ed Harris’ villain was a bit flimsy. He was a bad bad guy, not because he is a bad actor. Whoever wrote his part seemed undecided about his role. It also seemed that the movie was trying to be so patriotic that even the bad guy was turned into a good guy…at inappropriate times and quite randomly. It was too contrived to be believable and the film was too lighthearted for Harris’ villain to be any deeper than he was.

Anyway, there were quite a few wonderful Nicolas Cage moments. Despite his strange and long string of mediocre movie choices over the past decade or so, I saw a couple of glimpses of the fun and funny Nicolas Cage who had that certain something way back before Face/Off. Cage’s sidekick played by Justin Bartha was adorable. Reminds me of Paul Rudd, but a little cuter. Helen Mirren and Voight, who played the parents of Cage’s character Ben Gates, were an adorable couple with really good on screen chemistry.

Overall I’d say National Treasure is worth a watch in theaters, but if you miss it, it’s no real loss. It’ll be fine to catch on DVD.

• Directing: [rating:3/5]
• Acting: [rating:4/5]
• Casting: [rating:3/5]
• Cinematography: [rating:3/5]
• Writing: [rating:2/5]
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