Okay, So Your Name Is Mudd. Who Cares?

A week or so ago, my husband and I sat down to watch "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." While the first "National Treasure," was passable (certainly not great), I think even People magazine gave "Book of Secrets" a dismal review. Regardless, I do like history, and for a semi-action flick, there was at least the possibility that I could pick up a few historical tidbits. "Book of Secrets" partially delivered on that score. I learned a little more about the origin of the desk in the Oval Office. I learned that a smaller scale Statue of Liberty exists in Paris. But, I am sorry to report, that's about it (unless you count learning that Nicholas Cage really needs to just admit he's going gray and balding and be done with it - that was some seriously bad hair).

I just couldn't get behind the premise of the movie. I'll give you the nutshell. Nic's character, something "Gates," has his family name threatened when inexplicable bad guy (played by Ed Harris (see Nic - the bald thing isn't so bad)) comes forward with a dog eared page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth that implicates Nic's great great grandfather in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Nic spends the entire movie, traveling to Paris and London, and then ultimately kidnapping the President of the United States (yeah, right) at a birthday function at Mount Vernon trying to clear the Gates family name. He tells the story of Dr. Mudd, how even when he was cleared after setting Booth's broken leg, his reputation remained tarnished by association and the rumor that he was somehow complicit (I suspect that this was supposed to be one of those neat tidbits to pick up from watching the movie, but I already knew it so was unimpressed). Oh, and some kid at the White House Easter Egg roll taunts Nic with the latest headline, "Your family killed President Lincoln, nanny nanny boo boo." (as if an eight-year-old boy is really going to get all worked up about something that happened a century and a third before he was even born).

The entire plot was absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable, which still would have been okay with me had I found it remotely entertaining. What was even worse than Nic's antics was Ed Harris' bad guy, who was so obsessed with having his own family name get a gold star in the annals of history that he was willing to tap into Nic's dad's phone, follow Nic across the ocean, have a wild car chase in London that resulted in millions of dollars of property damage, and hold various members of Nic's family and friends at gunpoint. Really? Would you go that far?

As a relative of John Wilkes Booth himself, I would have to say no. Get over it. You weren't even there.