Thursday Movie Picks - Treasure Hunt

Wandering Through the Shelves hosts Thursday Movie Picks. It's a weekly series where bloggers post and share various movie picks every Thursday. 

The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

This week's theme is Treasure Hunt.

National Treasure

Historian and code-breaker Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) has been searching his whole life for a rumored treasure dating back to the creation of the United States. Joining an expedition led by fellow treasure hunter Ian Howe (Sean Bean), Gates finds an ice-locked Colonial ship in the Arctic Circle that contains a clue linking the treasure to the Declaration of Independence. But when Howe betrays him, Gates has to race to get to the document ahead of his so-called colleague.

I can't believe it took me like 10 years to watch this. Fifteen year old me would've absolutely died over Nic Cage ~*trying to steal the Declaration of Independence*~. Even though I only watched it a few years ago, it's still iconic in every way. Bring on the threequel! 

Da 5 Bloods

Four African American vets battle the forces of man and nature when they return to Vietnam seeking the remains of their fallen squad leader and the gold fortune he helped them hide.

Lee channeled so many different tones - social commentary, historical/war, adventure, character-driven drama - without letting the story become too disjointed. It's still such a shame this was robbed of one of the final slots for Best Picture and multiple performances - Jonathan Majors, Chadwick Boseman, Delroy Lindo.

The Mummy

Adventurer Rick O'Connell, librarian Evelyn Carnahan, and her gambling brother Jonathan compete against an opposing team of treasure hunters to locate a 3,000 year old hidden Egyptian city, and accidentally resurrect a deadly mummy on a mission.

I'm sorry, if you don't love this movie, I don't know what to say. Between Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, it's the definition of bisexual problems. And, it's a perfect contemporary homage to the 1930s adventurer flicks. Stephen Sommers doesn't make it too hokey or serious - it's just pure adventure and fun from beginning to end. It's always great to see how popular this is, despite the low ratings when it first came out. The Mummy Returns isn't a terrible sequel - it's a bit of rinse and repeat of the first - but it's still better than lot of sequels coming out today.....And we just don't talk about the third film either...