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Hello, everyone!
It has been one of those nights where I’ve had a blank page staring at me, while I’ve been staring at something else, in this case the television. Nonetheless, I have come up with something to ramble about.
Ramble of the Day
I thought of today’s ramble while reading the comments on Friday’s Hoddle. Someone asked me if I had seen any Nicolas Cage movies, and I answered yes. What I really wanted to say was: Of course I have watched a Nicolas Cage movie. I watch National Treasure basically every time it’s on television.
I was a National Treasure die-hard when I was younger. I can’t remember when I watched the film for the first time, likely around its 2004 release, but I unironically loved all of it. The mystery of trying to find the treasure was so engaging; I had to have the DVD, and was very excited about National Treasure: Book of Secrets, though that one wasn’t obviously as good as the first.
As I’ve gotten older, though, I have fully embraced just how bad National Treasure is. The plot is incredibly unbelievable, and the script is somewhat terrible. The acting is a little bit ridiculous at times, Cage in particular fitting that description. Yet, it is a classic, so bad that it can’t help but being good. It takes itself so seriously, but by embracing silliness, you have to respect it a little bit. You can turn off your mind and enjoy it, but you might enjoy it even more with your brain on, laughing the entire way.
I’ve only seen one other Cage movie, if I’m being honest. I think it was Stolen, the 2012 film directed by Simon West, but reading through the plot on Wikipedia, I don’t remember a thing. To me, Cage is an icon because of the National Treasure films, and the films themselves are national treasures.
It is one of the few things I will stop for every time I see it while flipping through the channels, along with 21 Jump Street (Jonah Hill-Channing Tatum version), The Princess Diaries, and episodes of The Office (American version). It’s a little bit different from a guilty pleasure; you’re not going out of your way to watch it, and you don’t exactly mind admitting that you watch these things. It’s more like a surprise pleasure, though I have to imagine there might be a better name for it.
It’s too bad Disney probably won’t make a National Treasure 3, though I don’t know if it might mess with a good thing. I have to imagine it would be hard to get Diane Kruger to agree to do another National Treasure movie since she’s moved on to critically acclaimed films. (Good for her, by the way.) I’m far too curious to hear details of the latest script, though.
tl;dr: A long ramble about a terrible movie that I will always watch.
Links of the Day
Juventus will fine Douglas Costa for spitting on Sassuolo’s Federico di Francesco, according to Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri.
Everton are being investigated for tapping up Marco Silva while he was still the Watford manager last year.
Former Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard is now a part owner of English fifth-tier side Dagenham and Redbridge.
Today’s longer read: Donald McRae interviews former Watford and current Burton Albion midfielder Martin Sordell on the “ruthlessness” of the sport and dealing with depression for The Guardian