So here's your options. Door number one: you go to prison for a very long time. Door number two: we are going to get back the declaration of independence. You help us find it, and you still go to prison for a very long time, but you feel better inside.

Harvey Keitel really sells that quote. I think the world needs more Harvey Keitel, he has a special way about it (my favorite role of his remains Mr Wolf from Pulp Fiction though.) Anyway, I was looking for some good mindless Hollywood entertainment at the end of a long week, and found it in National Treasure.

It really helps to not have high expectations for a movie like this. With these big action/adventure things I typically do my primary judgment on two things: how smart do the characters act and how far do the filmmakers have to stretch to generate peril and risk for the main characters. A second level of judgment comes in whether or not the movie pays attention to reality [1]. The reason I very much disliked Armageddon is if failed spectacularly on all these fronts, even though it was made well technically. But the problem is when the movie isn't smart (those three criteria above are just another way of saying the movie is smart) I spend all my time noting the dumb stuff and not munching on popcorn and enjoying myself like I should be.

Alarmingly, this movie turns out to be pretty smart. The characters are bright and don't do especially silly things, even the cops. And the treasure hunting theme allows all the tension to be from the "bad guy" who is looking for the treasure and willing to kill people to get to it - but lets be honest, he's not all that bad, most bad guys would have been torturing people, generating body counts, and being generally ruthless. Ian was a teddy bear in comparison. Yes, the whole gunpowder thing in the opening was silly and worried me greatly, but it turned out to be an isolated incident. And there was only one time where the movie totally didn't pay attention to reality (in the physics and science arena, not in the fantastic worlds these movies build as their premise.) But I'm racking my brain and I can't even remember what that one time was. In comparison, I spent an hour outside the theater after I first saw Armageddon; all of us cataloging the ways it diverged from reality.

Ah, I remember what it was now. At one point the characters use the shadow of a building at a specific time of day to get a clue. But shadows are different at the same time of day at different times of the year - that's why the sun is setting at 8:30 here now instead of it's normal 4:30 time in December. But the characters had no idea what date to base it off of - that got a big eye roll from me.

Granted, the big exception to characters being smart is when they go lighting torches and chandeliers, and lighting systems in 200 year old tombs filled with wooden stuff. Since, you know, it could be possible those systems don't work anymore
There you go, a well made movie that is totally ridiculous - but doesn't push my buttons so I can mostly suspend disbelief and have fun. Of coursre, your buttons might be different, which could lead to you having no fun at all - it'll be a pretty fine line with this movie.

Notes:
1. When I say pay attention to reality I'm talking about the real world where the laws of physics and such still apply. Movies like this are allowed, and often required, to make all kinds of craziness up. But the stuff they make up needs to be at least feasible. When they start playing around with the rules the universe operates under they've crossed that line.

2. There are many unlikely things that happen in this movie. Oddly enough, one of the key ones I noticed was the hot, blond, single history nerd who conveniently serves as a love interest for Nicolas Cage. I'm not saying that hot, blond women can't be smart and crack into nice meaty fields like the protecting the national archives. Sure, the stereotypes say it's rare, but I work in a field with similar stereotypes and I know several hot blondes in the field - they're out there. But where they really drift off into extra-special unlikely land is when she's single. My experience says women like that don't stay single for long... I'm just saying.

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