Starring Nicolas Cage, John Voight, Ed Harris, Harry Keitel, Diane Kruger
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Studio: Disney 57252
Video: 2.40:1 anamorphic/enhanced for 16:9, 1080p HD
Audio: English Dolby TrueHD, English/French/Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: Book of History: The Fact and Fiction of National Treasure – Book of Secrets; Deleted scenes with introductions by Jon Turteltaub; The Treasure Reel – outtakes and bloopers; Audio commentary with Jon Turteltaub & John Voight; Secrets of a Sequel; The Book of Secrets on location; Street Stunts: Creating the London chase; Inside the Library of Congress; Underground action; Cover Story: Crafting the Presidents’ Book; Evolution of a Golden City; Knights of the Golden Circle, D-Box encoding
Length: 125 minutes
Rating: *****
I wouldn’t say the sequel to the original National Treasure feature takes the idea to another whole level of excitement – as director Turteltaub alleges in the extras – but it certainly is a good adventure from start to finish. Starting out entails a greater struggle than with most DVDs from other studios. Disney seems to be taking advantage of the maximum 50GB storage on Blu-ray discs to cram as many features for both their other DVDs and other theatrical films as possible, and makes it a challenge to speed thru them to get to the feature you want to watch. When combined with the slow-as-molasses loading of my first-generation Blu-ray player, it does test one’s patience.
Treasure hunter Ben Franklin Gates (Cage) is back in this sequel, and this time around he is trying to clear the name of his great grandfather who has been implicated in the assassination of Lincoln. The original treasure hunt was mostly within the confines of the U.S. but this time the band of adventures go to London, Rome, and Paris, as well as Washington, D.C. and Mount Rushmore. Getting to the truth and battling another evil treasure hunter – played by Ed Harris – Gates must kidnap the U.S. President in order to pin down from him the existence and whereabouts of a secret Presidents’ Book that is part of the hidden clues. Everything comes to a head in the Black Hills of North Dakota, where the film seems to suddenly shift gears into a sequel of a different adventure series – that of Indiana Jones.
The transfer looks great, the TrueHD surround rocks – especially good with all the water sounds – and if you have one of those ultimate home theater setups with D-Box-stimulated chairs, the proper coded signals are right there on the soundtrack so you can personally experience the death-defying group balancing act near the conclusion of the adventure.
– John Sunier
