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Listen to F This Movie! on Apple Podcasts.
Also discussed this episode: Abigail (2024), Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024), I Saw the TV Glow (2024), Cash Out (2024), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), The Hard Way (1991), Mad Dog and Glory (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), Challengers (2024), The Judge (2014), Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls (2023)
Haven't had the chance to listen yet, but IMO, Indiana Jones-style archaeological adventure simply doesn't work in the modern day. Once satellites have mapped the globe and flashlights have made torches obsolete, even if the ancient sites/temples/etc. are far from civilization, the magic is gone. Tomb Raider, Uncharted, Congo, the Tom Cruise Mummy... none of them really work. It'd be like trying to make a modern-day Zorro movie, with Zorro wielding a sword against baddies with assault rifles - does not compute. (The series Arrow actually made something like this work for a while, but, crucially, its genre was gritty action, not swashbuckling adventure, and the introduction of superheroes made the whole thing fall apart.)
ReplyDeleteThe first National Treasure (haven't seen the second) is the one exception to the above principle, IMO, in large part because it leans into the self-evident silliness of having ancient riddles and texts authored by relatively recent 18th-century Americans, and because Gates is unique in that he's not a fighter - he doesn't fire a single shot in the movie, and as I recall only throws one or two punches? Unlike, say, the '99 Mummy, National Treasure isn't trying to evoke the same serials or old-school pulp novels Indiana Jones was based on. As with Robert Langdon, Gates is an urban library puzzle-solver rather than a field archeologist of far-flung lost kingdoms.
Woot! I absolutely love the silly fun action adventure that is the National Treasure movies. Its the perfect combination of: Raiders copycat, Cheezy Fun, DaVinci Code copycat, Action adventure movies. The only other franchise that i can think of that does it about the same is the jolie helmed Tomb Raider flicks. Honestly in a world where every freaking studio is chasing IP to death and driving it into the ground, i CANNOT fathom why we havent gotten a National Treasure 3 yet!?! Its like leaving money on the table...i know i'd go opening weekend.
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