Review of National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) by Tiffany W — 26 Jun 2016

This film starts off with the Lincoln assassination and Booth's diary pages being thrown onto the fire.  At Ben's lecture Mitch (Ed Harris up to no good as always) presents one of the missing pages and claims Ben's great grandfather was a co-conspirator in the assassination.

 Ben with Riley Poole (masterfully played again by Justin Bartha) and Abby set off on an adventure to prove Great Grandpa's innocence by finding Cibola.  Their adventure begins in Paris then takes them to London (by far one of the funniest sequences in the film).

 Ben pretends to be a drunk spouting out British slang by the mouthful (I wonder if the Brits found this funny) in an attempt to gain access to the Queen's Resolute Desk.  Once their task is complete Riley sets off the fire alarm and this brilliant dialogue takes place a guard shouts out "The fire alarm is going off!" cut to Riley "Uh-oh! God save the Queen!"  Priceless.

 In the desk they find a piece of lumber with carvings that only one person can decipher Ben's mom, Emily (none other than The Queen herself Helen Mirrin).  Of course, Emily is not a fan of treasure hunting.

 Their massive puzzle solving skills prove useful as through a series of sometimes silly circumstances (kidnapping the President anyone) they find Cibola.  Being a minor conspiracy theorist I was intrigued by the President's Book.

 Supposedly this is a book passed down from president to president containing important presidential secrets only the President should know (ie. Area 51 and the like).  The current (fictitious film) President hid it in the Library of Congress.

 Oh to visit that place one day!  Anyway not to get off on a tangent.  This flick is fun.  Riley is hilarious although his recap from the teaser is missing from the finished product.  Never fear I have it here: "So let's recap: We've broken into Buckingham Palace, and the Oval Office, stolen a page from the President's super-secret book, and actually kidnapped the President of the United States.

What are we gonna do next, short-sheet the Pope's bed?"  Awesome.  I also found myself solving pieces of the mystery during the film though I found it unfair when some of the characters knew more than the audience.

 Of course most of them hadn't read Riley's book either.  My recommendation is yes watch this flick.  It's good clean Disney fun that's not too cheesy.  Plus Harvey Keitel is in it.

 You know you can't say no to that.  Hopefully whatever is on page 47 in the Book of Secrets is revealed in National Treasure 3.