Search

Search only in certain items:

National Treasure (2004)
National Treasure (2004)
2004 | Action
6
7.1 (17 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Family friendly 2004 treasure hunt film, in which Nicolas Cage dials back his usual manic energy to play the lead character who - for plot reasons - has to steal the Declaration of Independence (yes, *that* Declaration of Independence) in order to stop the (British, of course) villain of the piece - as portrayed by Sean Bean - from doing so and then destroying that artifact.

As such, heavily aimed at the American audience rather than more international fare, coming across (to my UK eyes, at least) as very much an American attempt to set up a new Indiana Jones series. Oh, and the whole plot point of something being on the back of the Declaration? Remind you much of The Da Vinci code, and something on the back of the Mona Lisa ...?

Having said that, it's polished enough to not be the worst way of spending about 2 hours or so in front of the box.
  
A Quiet Place: Part II (2021)
A Quiet Place: Part II (2021)
2021 | Horror, Thriller
Sequel to the 2018 original, which - despite being a commercial and critical darling - was a film that I couldn't really see what all the fuss was about.

Despite being a sequel, this actually starts back at 'Day One' with a protracted flash-back scene that I'm not quite sure the point of, before jumping ahead to pick up almost immediately (like, immediately immediately) after the ending of the first film, with the remnants of the same family now leaving their refuge and trekking cross-country to the hills where they know there are other survivors (Cillian Murphy), but now also armed with the knowledge of how to defeat the seemingly-invincible 'hunt by sound' creatures.

What follows is roughly an hour and a half, maybe three quarters or so, where they continue to make bad decision after bad decision, and where the tension is consistently racked up, almost to the the point where the jump scares lose most (but not all) of their impact ...