In celebrating our anniversary, we saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

Secrets suffers a little bit from being a sequel, but it’s still entertaining. An ancestor of Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage’s character) has been besmirched, accused of masterminding Lincoln’s assassination. After some code-breaking curiosity it is discovered that Gates must discover the legendary City of Gold to clear his ancestor’s name.

Part of the movie’s entertainment comes from the Mission: Impossible-like acts of Gates and his co-horts, Riley Poole and now ex-girlfriend Abigail Chase. They break into Buckingham Palace and the Oval Office, and they kidnap the President during a party. Conspiracy theorists will like the President using a presidential book of secrets to send Gates on the final leg of the treasure hunt.

The ex- issues of Gates and Chase as well as Gates’ divorced parents made for some humorous banter, but it wasn’t pressed enough to make sabotage a possible thought.

Most intriguing is Ed Harris’s portrayal of Mitch Wilkinson, who used evidence he had to draw Gates into this treasure hunt. He does some bad things, of course, but in the end there is an act of sacrifice that softens the antagonist, not from a change of heart but from the audience’s perception of his character and motives.

There is a scene where they begin to enter the City of Gold that reminded my wife of The Goonies. There is no Sloth, but some of the earthy operations of secret passageways is reminiscent.

I thought the first was slightly better, but the second has some good humor from Justin Bartha’s portrayal of Riley. I had to suspend more disbelief in this film, but I’d still recommend it. The PG rating comes from some violent car chase scenes and some skeletons, but otherwise it is pretty family-friendly.