The Lost City ★★★
IF YOU’RE looking for an old-style Hollywood adventure The Lost City should fit the bill.
Starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, it is unashamedly similar to films we don’t often see these days, like Romancing the Stone and The Mummy and, further back to the original African Queen.
I’m not forgetting last year’s Jungle Cruise, but that was based on a theme park ride.
According to Bullock, they had a hard time convincing the studio to stump up the required budget for The Lost City because it wasn’t based on a ride, book, comic or video game; nor was it a remake, sequel or reboot.
It’s just a plain, old fun story about an unlikely pair who get into a bunch of trouble and fight their way through with plenty of humour.
Bullock plays successful but bored adventure/romance novelist Loretta Sage who secretly wishes she had instead followed her dreams and become a real, travelling archaeologist with her late husband.
Her latest novel, again featuring swashbuckling hero Dash McMahon, is about to be released and publisher Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) insists that the usually reclusive Loretta embarks on a publicity tour along with model Alan Caprison (Tatum).
Alan is famous purely for being the recurring face of Dash on all the the novel covers, but takes it seriously to the point where he can’t stop acting like he is a dashing and resourceful hero.
Loretta can think of nothing worse than spending an extended period of time with the apparently vacuous Alan – think Bullock’s FBI agent in Miss Congeniality teamed with Ben Stiller’s Zoolander and you get the set-up.
Into the picture comes eccentric billionaire Abigail Fairfax, played by Daniel Radcliffe, who knows that Loretta bases her books on actual historic research she did with her husband. The latest book features a lost city on a remote Atlantic island and, based on his own research, Fairfax is convinced that this is also the real location of a priceless treasure.
He kidnaps Loretta and takes her off to Central America demanding that she translate key documents that will pinpoint the location.
Dash and Beth hire Jack Trainer, a former Navy SEAL turned CIA operative also for private hire (“she’s recovered in 24 hours or your money back”), to rescue her.
In a terrific cameo the would-be rescuer is played by Brad Pitt who is forced to have Dash tag along on the dangerous jungle recovery mission.
I’ll leave it there because there are actually a couple of surprises in a generally very predictable storyline.
Some of the chemistry between the leads is a little lacking but overall you would be a pretty miserable human to not enjoy this one.