Whenever movies like The Lost City comes around, you always tend to hear this exact phrase from old film buffs, “they don’t make them like that anymore”. I think the reason for the constant uttering of that phrase is more than those folks realize. It’s not necessarily because they don’t actually makes movies like this anymore as they clearly do. We got Uncharted last month, Jungle Cruise about nine months ago, and there’s even a chance in the near future that we’ll be getting a 80-year old Harrison Ford back as Indiana Jones. I believe that more comes from the notion that these kind of flicks that come out today don’t give them that exact same sense of adventurous nostalgia that the better kind of these movies did in the 1980s, most notably Raiders of the Lost Ark or (at least in this film’s case) Romancing the Stone. No movie genre or sub-genre can stay dead forever. Even when it’s dead and buried, life will always find a way to resurrect it. Why else do you think we’re still getting superhero movies 25 years after Batman and Robin?
The fact we have to treat movies like The Lost City as high regard for the subgenre of romcom and adventure flicks or else it will go away forever is quite preposterous. These kind of movies don’t have to be game-changers to be good, they just need to be good in their own rights. And for the most part, The Lost City is pretty good. It’s not great and I’m not quite sure if it could be considered good underneath the surface if you took away it’s charismatic cast, but it does it’s job of delivering a breezy crowd pleaser that has the right blend of action, adventure, romance, and comedy to make for a solid night out at the movies.
Premise: Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock), an author who is famous for writing romantic-adventure novels that focuses on a fictional protagonist named Dash, who is portrayed by a handsome but dumb model named Alan Caprison (Channing Tantum). However, despite her success, she had gained a constant feeling of being unsatisfied with the direction who career is going. While on a tour with Alan to promote her new book, Loretta is kidnapped by a mercenary named Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), an energetic billionaire who believe that the supposed “lost city” in Loretta’s new book is in fact the real deal and demands that she take him there. Alan, who has no survival skills, hires a CIA agent (Brad Pitt) and goes on a quest to find and rescue her.
The plot is about as basic as these kind of movies can get with not much depth or complexity to be found here. While there’s an interesting idea for potential meta commentary about fantasy vs reality, not believing in every single thing that you read, or even doing a Se7en or Memento style of “a movie in a movie”, it’s not really explored that much upon and acts more as an excuse for a trio of likeable actors to go on an amusing adventure together. But that’s okay because everyone in this talented cast brings their A-game and is able to do the very best with the admittedly surface level of material they are giving to work with.
The biggest main focus of the movies focuses around the relationship between Sandra Bullock’s Loretta and Channing Tantum’s Alan. On paper, this sounds like the oddest and worst pairing possible. It’s the kind of pairing that certainly been seen as a lazy excuse to do the whole “opposites attract” trope (one which Jurassic World did INCREDIBLY poorly), but it works here because both Bullock and Tantum are very likeable presents and are able to add just enough depth to their characters which come across more than just one-note cartoon action figures. Sandra Bullock has recently hinted at potentially heading to a semi-retirement. If that’s the case, then at least she is able to show everyone what an absolutely likeable and welcome present she always is on the big screen as Loretta (Greenlight Ocean’s 9, you cowards!). Channing Tantum shows that there’s more to his comedic chops than with the Jump Street movies. While his character is suppose to come across as being the “hot dumb guy” of the picture, the film thankfully doesn’t go too overboard with it and does allow for Tantum to have a few stand out moments for himself without taking anything away from Alan.
The rest of the cast stand out well as well, particularly that of Daniel Radcliffe’s Abigail as the antagonist along with Brad Pitt’s Jack Trainer. Radcliffe admittedly is not one you can fully buy as being a scary or intimating villain but he does absolutely chew the scenery of being the toxic fanboy that reads too deeply into things that it’s genuinely hard to care. Brad Pitt does make for a welcome presence but he isn’t in the movie as much as you would expect. Almost as if directors Adam & Aaron Nee didn’t want his character to come across as being too badass and have Pitt steal his thunder away from that upcoming Bullet Train movie where he is guaranteed to be kicking all kinds of ass there. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Patti Harrison, and Oscar Nunez as Beth Hatten, Allison, and Oscar respectively don’t quite land the banter and quips as the rest of the crew but they are not in the movie nearly enough to where it comes across as a big problem and do have some chuckle worthy moments regardless.
It might seem odd that I’m mostly focusing on the cast rather than the other aspects of the movies but that’s mostly because it’s this star power crew of talent that is able to carry the whole picture and it’s abundantly clear that is the attend on the filmmakers part. You can definitely argue it falls into the kind of action adventure clichés that more recent flicks of this sub-genre couldn’t avoid, but at least here, it’s able to nail the cast of characters that are able to provide their own room of depth and traits that it doesn’t matter how somewhat thinly written their characters are.
The movie does drag in the middle where there is at least good 15 or 20 minutes where the momentum stops completely as it’s mostly consists of scenes of Bullock and Tantum together to further develop their chemistry so that their endgame to their relationship can make and kind of sense. There are at least one or two shots were the green screen is painfully noticeable (Film Twitter is gonna have a field day with this movie once it hits home media). Plus, as I said in the beginning, it’s somewhat of a shame that the movie doesn’t even attempt to add a bit of intrigue to it’s plot despite it’s overall premise just screaming of “a movie inside of a movie” where it’s main character is an author and goes on the exact kind of fantasy adventure with her “too handsome to be true” male counterpart that she writes about for a living. Then again, that probably could be too much for the movie’s target demographic that it would possibly be seen as a step too far. Lastly, comparisons to The Romancing the Stone are very obvious and while I still argue the movie works well enough as it’s own thing, you will probably be able to notice the structural similarities if you look too deep into it.
There definitely is a sense of The Lost City being looked down upon as not being the genre bending film that certain folks want this to be. While that might be true on the surface level, at the very least the movie doesn’t try to pretend to be anything more than that or deceive it’s audience into thinking it’s something much more grand than it actually is. It’s the kind of a flick that is pointless to pick apart and criticize because it’s very clear everyone on the production of this movie are getting together to just have a fun time. Having a fun time by making the exact kind of flick that they probably grew up watching in the theaters and sharing there love of it onto casual movie goers. And a fun time it absolutely is.
The Lost City is a brisk, enjoyable adventure flick that some might be able to get more out of than they did with other similar recent movies of this sub-genre like say Uncharted or Jungle Cruise. The beats worked, the jokes mostly land, the cast are a blast to watch, and it’s not a chore to sit through. As I’ve said many times throughout this review, this probably would not have worked if it weren’t for the likable bunch of talent on the big screen but they were up on the big screen throughout the film’s 102-minute long runtime. Because of that, I can’t help but like it.
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