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There’s breezy fun and then there’s cheesy fun. “National Treasure” falls firmly in the former camp with a fast paced action-adventure drama. It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen a movie this unpretentious and fun. “National Treasure” is a fun, quick paced film with a nice performance from Nicolas Cage that tips its hat to "Raiders of the Los Ark" and other adventure movies without borrowing from them. ***

There's gold in them there hills and the founding fathers know where the treasure is buried. Cage plays Ben Gates who is in puruit of a mythical treasure. The founding fathers who signed the Declaration of Indpendence left clues to those who know where to look. Gates' great-great grandfather was privy to the info about the treasure and the clues. When Ben fails to convince the local authorities including museum curator Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger "Troy")of the danger to the DOI, Ben has to find the invisible map on the back of the Declaration of Independence before his rival and former backer Ian Howe (Sean Bean "The Lord of the Rings", "Troy", "Goldeneye")can get to it and steal a fortune. ***

Filled with marvelous supporting turns from Jon Voight, Christopher Plummer, Harvey Keitel "National Teasure" despite its PG rating (more for violence and scary images)is great fun for kids and parents alike. While there's enough plot holes to drive a truck through and a number of implausible moments, director Jon Turteltaub recognizes (as Hitchcock did) that if the plot is involving, credible on the surface and breezy fun audience will overlook them. He does a great job directing the movie keeping the quick pace and witty dialogue flying. ---

Extras include an alternate ending which didn't quite work for the movie. There's both a commentary from the director and a introduction by Turtletaub as well. We also see an animatic (a computer generated animation that suggests what the final scene will look like)for the opening sequence again with a brief intro by Turtletaub. The 12 minute featurette gives plenty of behind-the-scenes footage of one of the best action sequnces. Most of the rest of featurette focuses on talking heads with the director, producer and actors discussing the production of the movie what they hoped to achieve. It's essentially a promo reel for the movie. There's also about 8 minutes of deleted scenes included as well. At the end of each extra there are clues given that will lead you to a "treasure" on the DVD. Once you have the master code you can click on the book in the corner to submit the secret key and get access to your "treasure". There's also a couple of additional worthwhile featurettes including one on "The Knights of Templar" and one entitled "Treasure Hunters Revealed". Unfortunately, these featurettes were missing on the version I received.