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Lackluster 'Treasure'

Nothing golden glitters here; in fact, the film's tiresome action and ludicrous dialogue may leave the viewer feeling robbed.

What a drab, sluggish "adventure" the new film National Treasure turns out to be. Maybe we can shrug it off as Disney's dry run for turning The Da Vinci Code into a movie since it's also a globe-trotting search guided by riddles that are impenetrable until actors reciting the script explain them, at which time they simply become dumb.

Nicolas Cage stars as Benjamin Franklin Gates, the latest in a long family line of fortune hunters intrigued by the legend of a $10-billion treasure hidden by our founding fathers. To find it, Benjamin must sort through clues left by the mysterious Freemasons, a secret society that likely would blow its cover and gripe like swiftboat veterans if they knew how director Jon Turteltaub is exploiting their legacy.

The most important clues may be hidden on the back of the original Declaration of Independence, which Benjamin must steal to inspect and to keep from the clutches of a standard issue bad guy (Sean Bean). The caper elements aren't cool in an Ocean's 11 fashion and the action, tamed for PG standards, is unimpressive. Even the treasure is a disappointment. But nothing else in the movie is golden, so why should we expect it to glitter?

Benjamin has help, or rather, two people who tag along on his quest: Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger, Troy) is a National Archives curator who gives Cage someone off whom to bounce his hokey lines. Justin Bartha plays obligatory sidekick Riley Poole, just a few IQ points higher than his laughable turn as a mentally challenged hostage in Gigli. He gets the best lines simply because they aren't jammed with historical mumbo-jumbo.

Even Harvey Keitel can't muster any intensity with a screenplay of such dense exposition. As a colorless FBI agent investigating the document theft, Keitel always seems to be taking one step toward off-camera so he can grab his paycheck. Casting Jon Voight as Benjamin's doubting father makes sense, if not chemistry, since he also played Lara Croft's father in a Tomb Raider flick as dull as this one.

National Treasure looks like smart counter-programming on the surface; a summer kind of entertainment released in autumn when more serious films open for awards consideration. Then you realize it's purely for survival; Turteltaub's movie would have been eaten alive by summertime competition. National Treasure doesn't even look like an idea for a video game. These days, that's as unambitious as any action movie can get.

Grade: D

Director: Jon Turteltaub

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Christopher Plummer

Screenplay: Jim Kouf, Cormac Wibberley, Marianne Wibberley

Rating: PG; mild violence, scary images

Running time: 125 min.