National Treasure (2004) Dir: Jon Turteltaub

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There is a long, virtually inexhaustible, list of films from my childhood that I want to rewatch, and, oddly enough, the sequel to this 2004 adventure film is on that list, but this one isn't. The reason for that is simply that I never watched this first film growing up - it had a '12' age rating. Both films were directed by Jon Turteltaub, perhaps best known for 'The Meg' these days, and feel like peak noughties live action Disney.

In many ways, this felt like Disney's family friendly version of 'Indiana Jones'. It had all the same ingredients - a rebellious American man hunting for lost artefacts, a snide and cunning foreign villain, and mysterious, historical, clues leading to a priceless treasure - albeit, these were all watered down and made a little more fit for a modern family audience. Unfortunately, 'watered down' ended up being the main descriptor of the film - it had some fun clues, an intriguing mystery, and plenty of action, but none of it was quite as entertaining as the films it was evidently trying to emulate.

I enjoyed the adventure that the story constructed, although, I must admit, I found the ultimate hiding place of the treasure to be pretty unbelievable, considering the infrastructure of its location. It didn't make much sense, but I suppose it's more believable for children and pre-teens. I digress, the narrative is fine for what it is, but it does get a little silly with its clues and conspiracies.

Nicolas Cage in the late nineties and early noughties was very much him at peak intensity, and whilst this performance doesn't quite reach the absurdity of those in some of his other films from the time, there are still moments where the beast comes out. Whether you like this era of Cage or you don't, you cannot deny that the man has a charisma to him, and that has helped him to produce sime extremely memorable performances. This may not be amongst his best, but he's still a lot of fun to watch.

Nobody else is close to being as memorable as Cage, but the supporting cast certainly tried. Sean Bean, perhaps, came closest, although that was partly because of the man's inherently iconic face and voice. I had no idea he was in the film until he appeared on the screen. His villain had mediocre writing, but Bean managed to make him feel appropriately threatening and sinister when he needed to.

Cage's on-screen companions, played by Diane Kruger and Justin Barthe, were fine, but very much felt like secondary characters, especially Barthe. Their writing was not completely shallow, but I cannot pretend like either they or the actors playing them intrigued me much. The very well-known trio of Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, and Christopher Plummer, all provide memorable but fairly brief performances - I would have liked to have seen more of Kietel and Plummer in particular.

Overall, I think, whilst this may not be a perfect film, by any stretch of the imagination, this was a really fun adventure film, which was elevated by the exuberant performance of its iconic lead actor. It feels likes a solid and, let's be honest with ourselves, less dated, way to introduce someone to the idea of treasure hunting films. Leave 'Indiana Jones' until the children are older - start with this instead. They'll have fun with it.