List Price: $19.99You Pay Only: $9.99 You Save: $10.00 (50%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: CAGE,NICOLAS
EAN: 0786936242928
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Release Date: May 03, 2005
Running Time: 131 minutes
Sales Rank: 379
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: November 19, 2004
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Editorial Review:
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
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - An unbelievable adventure
National Treasure is literally an unbelievable adventure. There are so many gaping holes in the plausibility of the plot that you must simply suspend your disbelief for the duration of the movie. If you can do that, you will be greatly entertained. What more can you ask of a movie?
First, let's deal with some criticisms. Is it a rip-off of Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code"? Sure! The timing of the movie, the hidden clues beneath seemingly straight-forward public documents/paintings, and the secret society protecting its great treasure... we'll drop the word 'rip-off' and use 'influenced by' instead.
Does the movie require either the bad guys or the authorities to act naively in order to progress the story? Yep. However we have seen news stories frequently where crooks and lawmen have acted much more foolishly than the characters in this story.
Can anything in this movie be accepted as believable? Well, that's up to you. The pyramid with the glowing eye thing on a $1 bill seems pretty goofy to me, and the guys who dreamed that one up (our Founding Fathers) might be capable of just about anything. We know that the period around the American Revolution was full of secret societies and codes, handshakes, and ways to signify a rebellious spirit. Streets were named backwards, place settings at meals were opposite from the British standard, and documents were hidden in trees, in back of mirrors, and other interesting places. Check your attic!
Would ... Read More
Rating: - Davincianda Jones and the Freemasons of Doom
In one of the more interesting hybrids to pop out of Disney, Nicholas Cage plays Ben Franklin...gates that is, a treasure hunter spanning the globe to prove the family story about a missing treasure guarded for centuries by the Knights Templar and Freemasons. If you're looking for plausibility or realism, you're in the wrong place. But if you want a pop-corn thrill ride where no-one curses and there never seems to be any real danger, climb aboard.
Jerry Bruckheimer, say what you want about him, but he knows how to make a movie go pop. The action here is almost non-stop, the jokes and asides are often clever, and the cast has enough chemistry that the non-action sequences don't drag. Jon Turteltaub directs with a steady hand, as the whole movie, at two hours, it rushes by at lightening speed. It's a snappy enough pace that you don't question little things, like 200 year old ropes that still hold or being able to steal the Declaration of Independence.
Nicholas Cage leads the likable band of thieves, but special note is given to Justin Bartha, who plays sidekick Riley, and to the early cameo by Christopher Plummer, who plays Cage's Grandfather at the beginning of the film. The both take otherwise easily forgettable rolls and make then perfect. Cage plays BF Gates like a slightly less charming Indiana Jones (or a skinnier Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code), both films providing the sanitized source material for "National Treasure."
So relax, grab the popcorn and let the kiddies ... Read More
Rating: - National Treasure
Excellent adventure, mystery, action movie. Well done with some historical factoids plus fantasy eliments.
Rating: - Great Beginning
This is a great start to, hopefully,a new movie franchise. Nicolas Cage is perfect for the role of Benjamin Franklin Gates.
Rating: - 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.
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