.jeri.

I have no problem with watching a harmless adventure movie once in a while, and the National Treasure series of movies is no exception. They have a few laughs and a little bit of action, and though they aren't quite as exciting or exotic as some adventure movies, I like that they try and take the idea of American history and inject some fun mystery and adventure into it.

In this movie, the main character, Ben Gates, is confronted by a man named Mitch Wilkinson, who claims that Gates' great-grandfather was a co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, based on his discovery of a missing page from John Wilkes Booth's diary. In an effort to discover the truth and clear his family's name, Gates stumbles upon a bigger quest - to find the City of Gold. In the process, he actually has to kidnap the president of the United States so he can locate the President's Book, which contains all of the country's biggest secrets, and can only be viewed by the president himself.

The treasure hunt goes out and back into our country, and leads to a climactic sequence in an unexpected but popular national site. It keeps moving at a steady pace, and never pauses long enough for the audience to sit back and laugh at how easy it is for the cast to break into places like Buckingham Palace and the Oval Office. The tone is always light, and consequences don't seem real. But it's a movie the whole family can watch together without squirming in their chairs over some embarrassing scene or comment. Personally, I thought it was just fine for what it was, and wouldn't mind catching National Treasure 3 when it comes out.