Flashback to childhood in a boys' home where Nate and his brother Sam of the gorgeous cheekbones (Rudy Pankow) have been raised. Their parents are gone, which is different, according to the rather heavily underscored theme of the story, from being lost. The point is that if you're lost, you can be found, as in missing brother, lost treasure, and at a stretch, true friendship.
The young brothers are being separated probably forever after Sam has behaved badly once too often. Sam's farewell gifts to Nate are a ring with a Latin inscription, an ancient-looking map of Ferdinand Magellan's voyage to circumnavigate the globe, and a story of how said map provides clues to galleon-loads of lost gold.
Fifteen years later in New York, Nate's become a very cool bartender, as fast with his mixing, and as theatrical as Tom Cruise in Cocktail. He keeps that straight face of his while doing that, and while showing a deft hand for nicking precious things from customers. He's clever and cutely appealing.
Treasure hunter Victor Sullivan, known as Sully (Mark Wahlberg), recruits Nate to help him find, wait for it, Magellan's lost gold. The story of Magellan's voyage resurfaces. Sully even has the original map hung reverently on his apartment wall. It's not plain sailing, however: Sully is self-interested, untrustworthy and for fairly obvious reasons, friendless. He learns lots about himself on the job.
The job becomes a race to locate the 500-year-old keys to the tunnels under Barcelona's Gothic precinct, where the clues to the location of the ancient treasure lie. The villains, the self-proclaimed rightful owners of the treasure, the all-powerful Barcelona-based Moncada family, have a head start. Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) is the embodiment of evil and greed, Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) his right-hand woman.
Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali) is an intelligent Bond girl, with looks, physicality, daring and suitable chemistry with Nate. But can she be trusted?
Go for the fun of it, the suspense and the fight on the galleon deck near the end. Take a kid, or be like one. Stay for the scenes after the first lot of credits to find out more about Sam and that ring of his. Recommended.
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Giveaway
The first person to bring an image or hardcopy of this review to Starlight Cinema Taupō will win a free ticket to Uncharted.
