Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) is back again to defend his family’s honor by unraveling a new trail of clues. This time it’s his great-grandfather who has come under scrutiny, as it emerges that he is listed in John Wilkes Booth’s diary as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

It would be pretty easy to be scathing about this movie if it weren’t for the fact that I don’t think it sets its ambitions that high in the first place. If you’ve watched the first installment of National Treasure you’ll know that everyone involved is looking to make a film that tries nothing more than to be entertaining for a couple of hours. There is no need to engage the brain just hit auto-pilot and let the movie do its thing. So, with that in mind the movie does succeed.

The original treasure hunting gang are back and are as one dimensional as ever. Oddly it’s not as disappointing as it should be because they don’t really need to be anything else. If anything it makes the performances of Jon Voight and Helen Mirren (Ben’s parents) all the more entertaining. It’s like watching them have a mufti day at work where they can just run about enjoying themselves.

The plot is incredibly outlandish and impossible to achieve in real life without Gates being shot as a terrorist on several occasions. As long as you’re able to take that in your stride it really doesn’t matter. The only danger is Cage taking Gates too far over the top to be reigned back in. Thankfully I can only remember that happening once and I was quite pleased to see him quickly arrested.

Let’s face it, if you watched the first one, a lot of what happens here is going to be familiar. It is simply another episode of a mindless action adventure that manages not to offend too much. I don’t think fans of the first movie will be disappointed by this one, if anything I think I might have been more entertained this time around.

You can do a lot worse than spending a couple of hours following the treasure clues with Cage and comapany. Just don’t expect to unearth a masterpiece.