Oh. Dear.

There are some films that are so bad, they’re good…. This isn’t one of them. The writing team should be ashamed of themselves. You can almost see Nicolas Cage and Sean Bean cringing with embarrassment as they chew through their interminably dull, and impossibly contrived lines in the first half hour. Does “show, don’t tell” mean nothing to screenwriters these days? Gaahh. At least there’s less talking and more action in the rest of the film.

Plot-wise, the parallels between National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code are obvious. The heroes follow a trail of clues to an ancient treasure, all the while pursued by rival treasure-hunters, and the FBI, who think that the heroes are the bad guys. The big difference between The Da Vinci Code and this film is equally clear: Dan Brown’s book is an entertaining thriller, whereas National Treasure is just a stupid piece of crap.