The Lost City: Film Review
The Lost City was one of my most-anticipated films of the year and my expectations were super high for it and I’m pleased to report that it didn’t disappoint. It wasn’t perfect but I came away satisfied.
The film follows Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock), a reclusive romance novelist who is forced to go on a book tour with her franchise’s long-running cover model Alan (Channing Tatum), who plays the book’s hero Dash. After one promo appearance, she is kidnapped by billionaire Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe) who believes The Lost City in her novel is based on the research she conducted with her late husband and he wants her to help him find it. Alan launches a rescue mission to save Loretta from the jungle on a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Lost City is SO. MUCH. FUN. I haven’t laughed that often and that hard at the cinema for ages. It made me feel so happy and entertained and full of joy – I had a huge smile plastered across my face almost the whole way through. I feel like we haven’t had a good film that ticks all the action-adventure, romance and comedy boxes for years – Jungle Cruise certainly gave it a solid try last year but it didn’t quite hit the spot. The Lost City reaches the same heights as ’80s movies Romancing the Stone and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (personal fave) and also made me think of 1999’s The Mummy in terms of blending all those genres.
The script is littered with jokes (which didn’t all work) and Bullock and Tatum elevate the material and make the film even funnier. They have a terrific comedy partnership and great banter and chemistry. Neither are afraid of looking silly to get a laugh and to make a scene as hilarious as it can be. We haven’t seen Bullock do a studio comedy like this in such a long time and it’s so good to have her back; she’s brilliant in these roles.
Tatum’s Alan has the best intentions but he’s a bit of an airhead. It’s rare to see such a strong, hunky guy like Tatum be cool with appearing intellectually inferior to a woman but he has no problem being the butt of the joke and looking like an idiot. A great example of this is when he first appears in the film – he walks onto the stage in a long blond wig accompanied by Europe’s The Final Countdown! It’s very endearing and audiences will likely warm to Alan before the prickly Loretta.
Radcliffe has picked really interesting roles post-Potter and Abigail Fairfax is another outstanding choice. He’s great fun as the villain who isn’t particularly threatening at all. Brad Pitt is absolutely awesome as action man Jack Trainer – I wish the part wasn’t a cameo and had been left as a surprise in the film. There are also entertaining supporting turns from Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Patti Harrison, and Oscar Nunez.
I enjoyed The Lost City so much. There hasn’t been a feel-good, silly action-adventure romantic-comedy like this in a really long time and I hope this film is successful so that studios make more. We need more movies that don’t take themselves so seriously. I will be watching this again!
In cinemas from Wednesday 13th April