Brilliant, but reclusive author Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) has spent her career writing about exotic places in her popular romance-adventure novels featuring handsome cover model Alan (Channing Tatum), who has dedicated his life to embodying the hero character, “Dash.” While on tour promoting her new book with Alan, Loretta is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe) who hopes that she can lead him to the ancient lost city’s treasure from her latest story.
Wanting to prove that he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, Alan sets off to rescue her. Thrust into an epic jungle adventure, the unlikely pair will need to work together to survive the elements and find the ancient treasure before it’s lost forever.
Review
The treasure hunter genre has been chalked full of new content lately. Whether it was the reboot of the Lara Croft series, Red Notice on Netflix, or Uncharted which was based on a video game, Hollywood is trying to get us excited for something other than big Marvel fan fair (at least while they can). At first, when you look at the cast, it does feel as though this can’t possibly work because going too funny can ruin the balance of intrigue, story, and comedy. However, Bullock, Tatum, Radcliffe, and Randolph make a team that just works. Oh, and yes, even a little Pitt tossed in there for some added cover model appeal.
The story itself is rather plain, much like the treasure story of Jungle Cruise or Red Notice. The film follows Bullock who places a widowed romance novelist whose stories involve daring treasure hunts and romance that has wooed her audiences but has her not wanting to leave her home or finish the books. However, we quickly learn she has a passion for ancient treasures and languages, so she is sought after by a quirky villain who wants to find a special treasure and wants her to help.
Radcliffe plays our villain in this movie and frankly, he seems to be loving every minute of it, which made me enjoy his character even more. Over the top, nuts, mixed with a nice suit, several henchmen, and an ego the size of New York. Radcliffe has been vocal about not wanting to get typecast and being picky about taking on only the roles he wants to take. So it was clear this was something new for him to try out. As the film progresses the story takes an adventurous and hilarious chase through the jungle as Bullock and her long-time book tour model Tatum try to get away from our villain.
Probably the best part of the film is when we get introduced to Pitt’s character and watch the dynamic between him and Tatum as they race to save Mrs. Sage (Bullock) will have you laughing throughout the film. Tatum has a certain slip-stick humor to him that can get annoying and even be a bit “Ryan Reynolds” (i.e. always the same character regardless of script). Though he does diversify enough to be tolerable and funny in the right moments.
The poster mentions the Jungle not being ready for this type of action, and I can say the audience will be. It is time for a lighter affair at the movies after a string of dark, violent, and depressing films. The Lost City is a nice distraction filled with nicely timed laughs, a likable cast, and a solid enough story to keep you going until the end.
The Lost City is in theatres March 25th.
