National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Ed Harris, Helen Mirren) – A franchise is born. The original National Treasure was generally panned as a bad knock-off of Indiana Jones and The Da Vinci Code, but people came to see it. And this sequel has had great box office while the crowd seems multi-generational. As with the original Book of Secrets is just fun if you go along with it. There is comedy, mostly provided by Riley (Justin Barth); adventure in the bravado of Ben Gates (Cage); beauty (German actress Kruger as Abagail); a bad guy (Harris); and fine acting (veterans Voight and Mirren as the estranged parents of Gates). Historians Ben and Patrick Gates, basking in the glory of their discovery in the last movie, are forced to try to redeem their ancestor, Thomas Gates, who is implicated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by the discovery of a piece of John Wilkes Booth diary. Convinced that their Civil War relative was a hero, they seek the infamous City of Angels to prove that Thomas Gates’ decoding of a cipher was accurate. The adventure that follows has all the elements of the first Treasure, including implausibility, great sets, and wonderful special effects. The audience is never bored as the clues are revealed and our heroes are put into peril. If you don’t take this film seriously, it is well worth your time and money. If you’re looking for a tight script and a taut thriller, you might be disappointed.