National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Even lamer than the first one. It’s all recycled Indiana Jones, with the idea that ancient people had nothing better to do with their time but to construct elaborate deathtraps for people who wouldn’t come along to set them off for 500 years or so. What was fun in Raiders of the Lost Ark, because it took us back to those days of awful cliff-hanger black-and-white adventure serials of yesteryear, only with a big budget and tongue in cheek, is getting awful tiresome now. Who the fuck cares if these poorly-written jerks fall off the teetering platform? Who could possibly believe the stupid break-in at Buckingham Palace and kidnapping of the president? How did they do it? Oh, we got this computer whiz, see, and he knows how to … oh, bullshit. How many more times do we have to see that one? I don’t object to over-the-top and/or unlikely, if it’s funny, if it’s fun. This is all by-the-numbers.