Everyone loves a good treasure hunt. If not, you’re lazy and reading this is probably wearing you out.  Go lie down and take a nap. For everyone else, you probably enjoyed National Treasure but didn’t like the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code (and if you didn’t like piss-poor writing, you probably didn’t care too much for the book either). The difference is one is fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously while the other can’t seem to find the humor of Forrest Gump telling Amelie that she’s the descendent of Jesus. But sequels have a tough time of living up to the original. National Treasure: Book of Secrets may not surpass the first film, but it certainly has all the charm and adventure.

Benjamin (Nicolas Cage) and Patrick (Jon Voight) Gates are giving a friendly lecture about their ancestor Thomas Gates when Ed Harris has to come along and be a total douchebag. He tells everyone that he has proof that Thomas Gates was a conspirator and possibly the mastermind of the Lincoln assassination.  While this begins a hunt to clear his great-grandfather’s name, that’s not treasure.  It’s honorable, decent, and good, but it ain’t treasure.  A city of gold is treasure and that’s what the film should be subtitled as the “Book of Secrets” is just one in a chain of clues leading to the city.  

While its history may never be a hundred-percent and there’s a sickening amount of product-placement, Book of Secrets at least avoids the serious misstep of adding a kid which hurt other adventure sequels.  There’s fresh conflict to be found without adding an endangered-yet-scrappy child and this is a cast that needs no help.  Everyone is clearly having a lot of fun (although they could give Helen Mirren, who plays Ben’s mom, more to do), the scene-stealer is once again comic-relief Justin Bartha as the lovable Riley Poole. Bartha has got to get a better agent because this film wouldn’t be half a fun without him and it’s just wrong that he’s not in more movies.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turtletaub know exactly what makes this franchise work and there’s a clear set-up for a third movie. It may not be better than the other two, but when the films are this fun, it doesn’t have to be.