National Treasure

We always knew Nicolas Cage was a nerd. He adeptly personifies this in National Treasure. But in a good way.

This is a stupid movie, but a fun piece of cinema. The sole purpose of this movie, of course, is to entertain. But we're all suckers for movies that "educate" (in a movie kind of way) us about history. National Treasure concerns the Declaration of Independence as a piece of a puzzle leading to historical and intrinsic fortune.

I, as well as the general public, know nothing about American history. We know only what we learned in high school about American historical artifacts such as the Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Bell. So we're fascinated that our ancestors may have left us a piece of their puzzle. We're on the treasure hunt almost immediately, with a couple of false starts, but always in a linear progression. The line is simple yet is a puzzle-within-a-puzzle. This movie is simply a lot of fun -- stupid, illogical most of the time -- but fun. The trick is to let your mind accept the illogical and just go with it. Since we as the average viewer know so little about history, that's an easy thing to do.

Interesting that the critics panned National Treasure but that the DVD continues to sell briskly. Viewers love the historical chase.

Let's hope the Da Vinci Code is a bit better than this, but manages to hold our interest to the same extent. Thumb's up.