Action/Drama/Comedy. Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Jon Voight, Ed Harris, Helen Mirren, Bruce Greenwood, Harvey Keitel.

Released in the UK on Boxing Day 2004, the original National Treasure shamelessly plundered Dan Brown's global bestseller The Da Vinci Code to contrive a fast-paced treasure hunt around some of America's most iconic monuments and landmarks.

What the film lacked in logic, it made up in breathlessly paced action sequences and old-fashioned fun, recalling the escapades of Indiana Jones, albeit without the wit.

For the sequel, director John Turteltaub reunites with the stars of the original, plus a couple of new faces, for an even more absurd tale of ancient brotherhoods and hidden ciphers.

Book Of Secrets doesn't quite surpass the tongue-in-cheek entertainment of its predecessor, despite a breathtaking car chase sequence through the traffic-jammed streets of London, but Turteltaub's film is a pleasant, harmless diversion.

Husband and wife writing team Cormac and Marianne Wibberley open with a flashback to 1865 Washington and the assassination of President Lincoln.

Fast-forward to the present day and renowned treasure seeker Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage) is stunned when a stranger, Mitch Wilkinson (Harris), interrupts one of his lectures to flaunt incontrovertible evidence - a half burnt page from John Wilkes Booth's diary - linking one of Ben's ancestors, Thomas Gates, to the assassination plot.

Determined to clear the family name, Ben joins forces with his university professor father, Patrick (Voight), techno-wizard assistant Riley (Bartha) and estranged girlfriend, National Archives conservator Abigail Chase (Kruger), to unravel the intrigue.

Cage keeps a straight face throughout as the gung-ho adventurer with a nose for trouble, while Kruger fills the heels of the romantic interest.

A spectacular, waterlogged finale at Mount Rushmore sums up the film perfectly: overblown, noisy and dumb.