Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum get lost on a jungle adventure in the charming The Lost City
In many ways, The Lost City feels like a movie from days gone by. Not only is it an adventure-romance hybrid that cashes in on the chemistry of its leads, and not only is it an increasingly rare mid-budget effort from a major studio, but it’s all of those things and also actually… good? And that in itself is a very welcome surprise.
If you’ve ever seen Romancing the Stone, you’ve basically seen The Lost City – the bare bones of it, at least. Sandra Bullock plays scholar-turned-romance novelist Loretta Sage, who’s kidnapped by manbaby media mogul Abigail Fairfax (a beautifully unhinged Daniel Radcliffe) when he suspects she’s accidentally discovered the location of an ancient treasure thought lost for centuries. When her cover model Alan (Channing Tatum, in full-on himbo mode) decides to rescue her, the pair embark on the adventure of a lifetime.
You’d be forgiven for not being too interested in the film from that basic synopsis alone – but fear not. What The Lost City lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in good vibes. This is a flick that succeeds largely thanks to how game its cast is: without them, it’s hard to imagine the film being half as good.
It’s Bullock and Tatum who deserve the bulk of the credit here. If the narrative is perhaps a little predictable in places, both performers ensure we’re never in the least bit bored. The film sets up each of them and their conflict in a simple but effective way, then lets them have at it for an hour or so before they start to appreciate each other. Bullock is great as Loretta, who’s struggling with her worth as a novelist when we meet her – she feels washed up, like she’s fallen so far from the archaeology she did with her deceased husband. It’s only through finding herself severely outside of her comfort zone that she finds a reason to enjoy her existence again – and her cover model is a huge part of that.
Whyever did Hollywood let Channing Tatum vanish? He’s a star – he’s always been a star, and it’s painful that people forgot that. He’s perfectly cast as Alan: nice but dim, beautiful yet painfully, hilariously slow, it’s the kind of role Tatum was born to play. Because he’s so focussed on helping Loretta, he fails to realise quite how in over his head he is – he’s literally too nice for his own good, and Tatum’s comedic timing is beyond perfect, landing every single gag as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. He and Bullock bring out the best in each other in a lot of ways, ranging from simple comedy to genuine sexual chemistry, it’s a wonder we haven’t seen them together before – and hopefully it won’t be too long before we see them together again.
But for all the work that Bullock and Tatum do, it’s Daniel Radcliffe who steals the show. What could have been a simple, cartoonishly over-the-top villain role is rendered grand and operatic by an actor doing the best thing an actor can: experimenting. After Radcliffe made his millions from Harry Potter, it would have been incredibly easy for him to coast a living on basic, boring roles – but in doing the precise opposite of that, he’s proving time and time again that he’s one of his generation’s most watchable faces.
It's also worth noting that for a movie with a relatively slim $68m budget, The Lost City is one good-looking little flick. A ton of location shooting does it the world of good, lending it a realism that’s sorely missing from so many high-profile movies we see at the minute (looking at you, Marvel). The locations in question (the bulk of them scattered across the Dominican Republic) blend well with CG imagery when it’s used, never looking particularly funky until the final scene (where it’s painfully obvious that the scene is a pickup, as one actor is sporting an entirely different haircut to the rest of the film and is never seen in a wide shot on location). Those few moments aside, it’s nice to see a mid-budget movie like this that isn’t horrible to look at – it certainly makes a nice change from the abundance of green screens and soundstages we’ve become accustomed to lately.
When taken as a whole, there’s a hell of a lot to like about The Lost City. Sure, its script and story might be a bit on the basic side, but it’s directed well enough, and its cast is delicious. Bullock and Tatum’s chemistry is irresistible, and once you throw in an unstable-as-hell Radcliffe and a great little cameo from Brad Pitt, it’s impossible not to recommend as a popcorn flick. Fingers crossed this movie isn’t the last of its kind.
7.5/10
The Lost City is available to Download & Keep now and on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-Ray™ & DVD July 25.
Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved.
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