The movies ARE very similar, I know.

I know, I don't like how Ben and Abigail live together and they're not married, but other than that I lOVE the movies.

~Jill~

I love the first one...more action and adventure and I love mysteries.....it keeps you thinking all through the movie. The second one was pretty good too!

Agreed, nearly every sequal is worse then the original, there are very few that are actually better.

AJAiken: Ben's british accent is supposed to be atrocious! He's pretending to be drunk to cause a scene. It's supposed to be funny and goofy and crazy!

Oh, I know! But it still made me cringe. Wouldn't you cringe if someone did a bad copy of your accent, whether they were pretending to be drunk or not?

Glenstorm the Great: yes, they were in England. But sometimes when they said England what they meant was Britain; that's when I have a problem with it!

Nioniel, you're right. The revelations of the treasure are pretty much exactly the same. I think the hunts themselves are the real "treasure" of the movies; unfortunately it is hard to portray the significance of amazing historical artefacts on screen ... The highlight of the first film is the treasure, but the second film, not so much.

I really love the puzzles and clues of the movies. I've no idea what they're talking about most of the time, but I love the way that the characters put things together and are able to solve them.

I love National Treasure! I don't the DVDs yet, though. Oh, the joys of being a poor college student.

As everyone has said, the first movie has a better villain (and a better puzzle/storyline), but the second is a bit more epic in scale. I mean, traveling all over the world, kidnapping the President... what's not to love? The puzzles did get solved way too fast, and the pattern of Ben going, "Hmm... [repeat clue]... [repeat part of clue]... [repeat part of part of clue]... THAT'S IT! *goes to different part of world*" was a bit annoying. But the funny parts more than made up for it.

[In England, running away from the police]
Riley: I'll drive!
*jumps in car and grabs the-- where's the steering wheel?*

That made me die laughing the first time I saw it, because I'd forgotten they were in England, too!

And like everyone else, Riley is my favorite character. He's so cute and hilarious! In the second movie I teared up every time he volunteered to sacrifice himself so the others could go on. And I wanted to shout when he got his car back.

Man. Now I wanna see the movies again. Stupid college expenses.

alittlemoresonic: borrow them from your library. That's what I do and it doesn't cost anything.

And I love the part where they're like: why is everyone running? And then it's like oh well someones trying to run them over. And they're backing up and Ben says, "Did I just run over that guy's foot?!?!?!"

And I love where the dogs lick the camera in the car.

Oh, I know! But it still made me cringe. Wouldn't you cringe if someone did a bad copy of your accent, whether they were pretending to be drunk or not?

hmm not too much, they're pretending to be drunk after all .

Glenstorm the Great: yes, they were in England. But sometimes when they said England what they meant was Britain; that's when I have a problem with it!

aah ok.

I love National Treasure! I don't the DVDs yet, though. Oh, the joys of being a poor college student.

ditto, except I'm in high shcool, not college . I've been dying to buy the DVDs for ages but I'm poor . I just get them out of the library, or my family's Netflix account .

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the first movie.

Riley: Who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first? (I so wanted the bad guys to make him go down first)

Riley: It's surrounded by guards and video monitors and little families from Iowa and little kids on their eighth grade field trips.

Abigail: What led you to assume there's this invisible map?
Ben: We found an engraving on the stem of a 200-year-old pipe.
Riley: Owned by the Free Masons.
Abigail: May I see the pipe?
Ben: We don't actually have it.
Abigail: Did Bigfoot take it?

Ben: I'm in a little trouble.
Patrick: Is she pregnant?
Ben: If she is would you leave the mother of your grandchild standing out in the cold?
Patrick: Come in.
Abigail Chase: [to Riley] I look pregnant?
[He looks confused and unsure what to say]

Powell: How do a bunch of guys with hand tools build all this?
Ben: Same way they built the pyramids - and the Great Wall of China.
Riley: Yeah... the aliens helped them.

Riley: You don't know this? I know something about history that you don't know.
Ben: I'd be very excited to learn about it, Riley.
Riley: Hold on one second, let me just take in this moment. This is cool. Is this how you feel all the time? W-well, except now.
Abigail: Riley!
Riley: All right! What I know is that daylight savings wasn't established until World War I. If it's 3 p.m. now that means that in 1776 it would be 2 p.m.
Ben: Riley, you're a genius.
Riley: [Abigail and Ben start heading out. Riley follows] Do you actually know who the first person to come up with the idea of Daylight Savings Time was?
Abigail and Ben: Benjamin Franklin
[Riley stamps his foot in defeat]

Riley [after Ben decides to steal the Declaration] This is... huge. Prison... huge. You are gonna go to prison. You know that, right?
Benjamin: Yeah, probably.
Riley: Well... that would... bother most people.

Riley: It's a big blue-ish green man... with a strange-looking goatee... I'm guessing that's significant.
[hugs the statue]

Riley: When are we gonna get there? I'm hungry. This car smells weird.

Riley: Ian, why don't you just come back down here, and we can talk through this together!
[Ian aims his gun at Riley]
Ian: Don't speak again.
Riley: Okay.

Ben: I leveled with you one hundred percent.
Abigail: Give me the Declaration, Mr. Brown.
Ben: OK, my name's not Brown. It's Gates. I leveled with you ninety-eight percent.

Butcher Lady: If you're not a steak, you don't belong here.
Abigail: I'm just trying to hide from my ex-husband.
Butcher: [sees Shaw] Who, Baldie?
Abigail: Yes.
Butcher Lady: Honey, stay as long as you like.
Abigail: Thank you.
Butcher Lady: [to Shaw] You want something?
[leaning on the counter panting, while looking around for Abigail]
Butcher Lady: Do you want something?
Shaw: [unnerved] Shut up.
[leaves]
Butcher Lady: [to Abigail] I see why you left him.

Ben: The preservation room. Enjoy. Go ahead. Do you know what the preservation room is for?
Riley: Delicious jams and jellies?

Patrick: And he dragged you two into this nonsense?
Abigail: Literally.
Riley: I volunteered.

Benjamin: I'm so sorry I dropped you - I had to save the Declaration!
Abigail: No, don't be. I would have done exactly the same to you.
Benjamin: Really?
Abigail: Yeah.
Riley: I would've dropped you both! Freaks.

Patrick: At least I had your mother, for however short a time! At least I had you! What have you got?
[looks at Riley]
Patrick: Him? [Riley tries to blend in to the furniture]

Narnian_at_Heart-- Those are some of my favorite quotes too!

~Jill~

Ahh! National Treasure. I have to admit these are my favourite movies even over Narnia though no doubt when VDT comes out it will take out the top spot. I love Riley's character, he's hilarious and full of life. Abigail's cool too. Ben, not so much, I do still like his character but I think it would be better if he was a tad younger. I also, do not like the addition of the de facto relationship and I hope they get married in the 3rd (which I am highly anticipating ).

I love all those quotes narnian_at_heart. (Like the Britt Nicole one in your sig too! )

I do enjoy No. 1 better now, I used to prefer 2 because it went all around the world and wasn't just centered on the Americans. Now however I really appreciate the excellent puzzles in the first one and stealing the Declaration and all. But kidnapping the President was pretty epic too. However there were some BIG mistakes in the second. E.g. The Olmecs are from Central America and they never actually came into Northern America as far as anyone knows. I still love them both though and could watch them over and over again. I have both the movies and are trying to get hold of the soundtrack for NT1 but unfortunately it'll cost me NZ$50 because of postage and stuff like that! And I can't buy it off iTunes though I've tried requesting it. Never mind, maybe one day.

I thought I'd just pop in to gush over Riley. He's an extremely well-written character and balances out the Ben-Abigail duo quite nicely. I also thought his humour was a redeeming function of the sequel, which certainly benefitted from his sidekick abilities.

*pops out*

[edited]

I remember seeing the first National Treasure in a movie theater and finding it a pleasant surprise. Despite not being impressed by the TV spots for it somehow a friend and I went to see it and another fan was born.

I do think the first National Treasure is the best of the two but I also think that Book of Secrets was a very good sequel. And they are both entertaining and well done which is the main reason I go to the cinema.

I really like the main characters and Riley Poole is definitely funny but so is Ben Gates' father Patrick Gates played by Jon Voight. The cast does a great job of interacting with each other.

I own both movies on DVD and am definitely looking forward to the third one.

EDIT: I also bought the soundtrack for NT1.

I own a couple of the score tracks from both the films. I really like the music, it's very exciting and mysterious. I don't think I'd buy the whole soundtrack for either of them as I like having just a little reminder!

I think the first one is my favourite, but I just don't know how they can beat kidnapping the president. Bruce Greenwood is awesome. I hope that the third one brings him back!

^^My dad thinks NT3 will be a flop because yea, how can you top kidnapping the president? I said maybe they'll hijack a space shuttle and go to the moon to find a clue.

AJAiken-- I know! I love the music in the National Treasure movies, especially when Ben says, "Ian, I'm not gonna let you steal the Declaration of Independence!!"

I know! You just can't beat kidnapping the president!

I don't own the movies or the soundtracks for the movies.

~Jill~

Edit: Unfortunately.