Oh yeah, there'll be kissin' before the movie's done.

Okay, so National Treasure is silly and cartoonish and requires a super-human level of suspension of disbelief. Some movies can pull that off, some movies can’t, and this one has just enough self-deprecating awareness of its own absurdity to be fun rather than laughable.

The story opens with young Benjamin Franklin Gates learning the family legend from his flinty-eyed grandfather (Christopher Lee). It seems that back in Revolutionary War times a Gates ancestor was given a clue to the whereabouts of the treasure of the Knights Templar, and generations of Gates men have spent the centuries since obsessively studying history and looking for the loot.

Cut to the present day. Gates, now in the lanky form of Nicolas Cage, is closing in on a piece of the puzzle. Along for the ride are computer whiz/comic relief Riley (Justin Bartha) and suave rich guy Ian Howe (Sean Bean). But no sooner have they figured out that the next stop is the Declaration of Independence than Ian decides to dissolve the partnership by murdering the other two. They survive, of course, as the movie needs a hero and a sidekick, and the race is on to get the Declaration before Ian does.

Then there are more clues and chases and curiously bloodless shoot-outs and dark tunnels and a love interest in the form of a pretty, blonde history geek who works at the National Archives. The plot is clever enough. It doesn’t exactly keep one guessing but it moves at a brisk-but-not-rushed pace with some nimble twists. The Declaration heist in particular is a masterwork of tension with Gates trying to evade both an elaborate security system and Ian’s more experienced group of thieves.

The hardest part about stealing a precious historical artifact? Figuring out where to hang it.

The truth is, I kind of like Nicolas Cage: action hero. Okay, usually he gets crap material like Face/Off (with its immortal line, “I want to take his face. Off.”) and Con (barf) Air, but here his role as cut-rate Indiana Jones really plays to his strengths. His hang-dog, perpetually worried face works perfectly for this academic adventurer. He brings a boyish enthusiasm to Gates’s passion for history and a put-upon sullenness to his interactions with his embittered father, played by Jon Voight. The daddy issues provide a needed emotional arc for the movie, which the filmmakers wisely don’t linger over too long.

Bartha is funny as the slackerish Riley and Harvey Keitel shows up as an FBI agent charged with recovering the Declaration. And I’ll admit it: I mainly went to see Sean Bean (Boromir from Lord of the Rings all cleaned up and dressed nice? Oh yeah!) and I wasn’t disappointed. He makes a cold, cold villain but I think it’s time he gets a lead, don’t you?

Okay, so National Treasure is no Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it wears its silliness on its sleeve, which I find endearing. Besides, I have a theory that the treasure is out there somewhere and the whole movie is one big clue. Come on, if you help me figure it out I’ll cut you in for a share. Honest.

Gorilla Pants rating: 3 out of 4 bananas