For those of you who spent your summer reading The Da Vinci Code and other Dan Brown novels, National Treasure will surely spark your interest. This Walt Disney Pictures film follows the same formula of combining real-life locations and artifacts with fictional symbolism and codes of ancient secret societies. With producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director John Turteltaub, National Treasure is a captivating adventure and history lesson that holds in its throes our nation's greatest secret. 

Nicolas Cage stars as Benjamin Franklin Gates, an Indiana Jones type historian and treasure hunter whose family was long ago entrusted with a clue to the whereabouts of the legendary Knights Templar treasure. Unfortunately, decades of failed attempts at finding the riches have taken a toll on the family, which is now shunned in the professional world.

After providing background information on the legend, the film resumes in the present day Arctic, where Gates uncovers the remains of a Revolutionary War ship. Hidden within the ship is the next clue to the treasure. When Gates pauses to ponder the clue, he realizes that it points straight to the Declaration of Independence. His partner and financial provider, Ian Howe (Sean Bean) plots to steal the priceless document; however, Gates refuses and conflict begins, leading to a separation of efforts between Gates and Howe.  

Knowing that Howe will stop at nothing to get his hands on the riches, Gates and his awkward-genius sidekick, Riley (Justin Bartha), decide they must steal the document before Ian does. In an elaborate operation reminiscent of Ocean's 11's famous heist, Gates and Riley end up with the Declaration and an unintentional captive, the beautiful National Archives conservator, Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger).

The race ensues with Gates, Riley, and Abigail trying to maintain a lead, just a step ahead of Howe and the FBI, fronted by detective Sadusky (Harvey Keitel) who wants to get the Declaration back. Every clue is embedded in some archaic riddle, which takes the trio to significant historical sites in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and New York.

As the lead actor, Cage is visibly over the hill, but clings tightly to his strong screen presence, which is just enough to carry the film into the "decent" category. One obvious instance of his advancing age occurred as he stood gallantly, breathing hard with the camera panning around his heroic stance — and his middle-age beer-belly, clearly silhouetted under his shirt. Despite this, there were some humorous moments, mostly wise cracks from Bartha's sidekick character. Diane Kruger is also endearing as a wide-eyed, principled historian walking a fine line between following the rules and wanting to break them.

On the whole, National Treasure is an entertaining adventure that will surely take away from the monotony of classes or fill time during the Thanksgiving holiday. While not the most provocative or realistic of movies, it is clever and will engage a wide variety of audiences.