written by Oren Uziel, Dana Fox, Adam and Aaron Nee, and Seth Gordon
I had contemplated reviewing this on my YouTube channel, which has a bit of a broader audience than this blog (ever since I started filtering out the bots), but writing movie reviews, in my opinion anyway, is a bit of a dying art so I decided to keep this here so that, even as I keep putting up content on my vlog, I keep this fresh and updated with new reviews.
Anyway, the movie in question is The Lost City, directed by relative newcomers Adam and Aaron Nee and starring Hollywood A-listers Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. The film actually marks Bullock's triumphant post-pandemic return to theaters after her 2018 film Bird Box spent little time in theaters before heading to Netflix.
In the film, Bullock plays highly-successful romance novelist Loretta Sage, a PhD holder and failed archaeologist/historian who, frustrated with her lack of success in her preferred profession and disheartened by the death of her husband and archaeological partner, has decided instead to take her volumes of historical knowledge and repackage them as trashy romance novels, which have proven to be a huge hit among women. Catapulting to success along with Loretta is her cover model Alan (Channing Tatum) whose likeness adorns her books as the long-haired he-man Dash. The thing is, though, Loretta hates her job and has to be dragged virtually kicking and screaming to her latest book tour by her agent Beth (Da'Vine Joy Randolph). Upon leaving her latest, disastrous book tour, however, Loretta finds herself abducted by the wealthy Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe) a collector of the obscure who recognizes the historicity behind Loretta's writing and wants to use her knowledge to find the lost city described in one of her books, specifically the priceless crown found in that city. Having witnessed her kidnapping, Alan, who secretly has a crush on Loretta, hires exfiltration expert Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt) and follows her to the the remote island in the Atlantic to which Fairfax has whisked her. Hijinks ensue, and before long both author and cover model find themselves completely out of their element and on the run from Fairfax and his army of goons, but not not before Loretta realizes that she may be on the verge of finally finding the lost city she and her husband spent years looking for.
The movie is good (if a bit dumb) fun, and the kind of film we've seen less and less of since IP-powered movies started dominating the landscape several years ago. It's oddly fitting that the former Harry Potter Radcliffe himself helps bring a star-driven movie like this back to cineplexes. Sandra Bullock plays an older, wearier version of the harried career woman with which she built her career in movies like Miss Congeniality and The Proposal, among others, while Channing Tatum trots out the dimwitted beefcake he played in both 21 Jump Street movie adaptations, and Brad Pitt plays a role that borders on self-parody, but you know what? It totally works.
The movie's plot has the proverbial holes big enough to drive trucks through, as well as such a frayed connection to reality that it's a small wonder it makes it to the end without completely collapsing, but the redeeming aspect here is Bullock's and Tatum's comedic (if not necessarily romantic) chemistry together. Sure, it borders on the exploitative at times (mentally gender flip the scene involving leeches and you'll know what I mean) but the dynamic still works on the whole, and truth be told, it's actually quite refreshing to see the whole "older-leading-man-with-younger-leading-woman" trope totally turned on its head.
The movie's main virtue is that it is genuinely funny thanks to some good comedic timing and chemistry from its lead actors, and to its directors' willingness to lean hard into some romance movie tropes and mine them for their inherent humor. The film also benefits from some really gorgeous scenery, which is a must for movies like this, and from a surprisingly engaging musical score from relatively unknown composer Pinar Toprak (Captain Marvel) who does an awesome remix of a fantastically cheesy 80s song.
I'm glad they no longer spend huge amounts of money on movies like this (the movie was a relatively frugal $70-plus million); it's a good thing that we've moved on from the time when star-driven vehicles were basically the only show in town. Because movies like this have to survive in a marketplace where IP-based franchise fare rules, filmmakers can no longer just throw unconscionable amounts of money at movie stars and hope their faces are enough to put fannies in the seats; they have to try to engage the audiences with something entertaining.
Fortunately, this time, they managed to do just that.
7/10
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