After providing the traditional role of “guy in the family who knows how to fix computers” for my brother, as thanks he and his girlfriend paid my share of a visit to see The Exorcism of Emily Rose (spoilers there and here).

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National Treasure is, well, slightly cheesy and cliched but nevertheless engrossing and fun. To describe it as Indiana Jones for the Da Vinci Code crowd would not, I think, be unkind. It stars Nicholas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates, scion of a family who've long kept a secret. In the opening scenes the young Ben is taken through the tale by his grandfather, who describes how a vast treasure, originating in Egypt, was gather and hidden by the Knights Templar and subsequently the Freemasons. Eventually it was hidden somewhere in the USA, ostensibly to keep it from the British and the family Gates hold the last remaining clue “The secret is held by Charlotte”.

Despite this warning about who to avoid, we first meet the adult Ben Gates and his compatriot Short Round Riley Poole as he journeys across the arctic snow in the company of Ian Howe, a rich Briton (played by the man who may be most responsible for changing the way people prounounce Sean, Sean Bean) and his henchmen. Howe is obviously after the treasure for nefarious porpoises (though he's supposedly already rich since he's funding the trip, but anyway) and as soon as the clue is discovered, attempts to dispatch Gates as soon as he believes it's been decoded.

The clue leads to the Declaration of Independence and how it hides a map to the treasure. With Howe poised to steal it, and having survived the attempt on their lives and been knocked back by the FBI who don't believe anyone could steal the Declaration, Gates decides to steal it himself, stopping only long enough to pick up the young, sexy National Archives archivist Abigail Chase. As they decipher each clue to lead them closer to the treasure, Howe and his goons keep close behind them. Harvey Keitel does a turn as an FBI agent who's after both groups. B+

Official site: http://nationaltreasure.com/

An excellent little revenge thriller Brit-flick. Very few Wikipedia links because this doesn't appear to have made enough of a dent on American conciousness to warrant anything there.

Paddy Considine (also co-screenwriter with director Shane Meadows) plays Richard, an ex-Squaddie who returns to a nowhere midlands town to exact revenge on behalf of his simple-minded brother Anthony. The miscreants, the town's petty drug dealers (so petty in fact, all six of them travel around in a white and lime-green Citroën 2CV), abused Anothony's simplicity and plied him with drugs, drink and women. At first Richard simply scares and confuses them, breaking into their houses to ransack them or paint their faces as they sleep. The leader of the gang, Sonny (played by ex-boxer Gary Stretch), confronts Richard in the street but backs down and the gang return to their base to plan how to deal with him. Before they can though, Richard sneaks in and axes one of them to death and things spiral downwards from there.

Perhaps a touch predictable in places and Richard benefits from a couple of fortuitous events which otherwise would have seen the story finished rather more swiftly and less violently than it does. Well acted and shot and the scenery is suitably bleak and English. A

Official site: http://www.godwillforgivethem.com/