Yes, The Lost City is a sometime dimwitted, formulaic romantic adventure like Romancing the Stone and Indiana Jones with not much creativity that I could tell. No, it is not totally boring because it offers a relaxing antidote to COVID anxieties plaguing us for two years. The cutthroat island shenanigans, with reclusive romance novelist Loretta (Sandra Bullock) and her cover model Alan (Channing Tatum) are kidnapped looking for buried treasure.
What makes this romance mildly enjoyable is the charm of its stars, Sandy/Loretta just a bit too old but looking fab, and Channing, buff and self-deprecating enough to generate a spark with Loretta. Daniel Radcliff as baddie Abagail Fairfax seems out of place, but then that may be the point.
At our AMC-like theater there were a few other audience members far enough from us that we could cut up and converse, much like renting the theater for ourselves. Some solid scenes of repartee reminiscent of screwball comedies added to the pleasure of the island scenery and robust chases along with our not-always witty declamations.
I would recommend your staying home and enjoying the house invasion Windfall on Netflix except that we enjoyed being out and seeing what Hollywood could do when it barely tries. And when Brad Pitt does a cameo with surprising dexterity, your retro romance Lost City is fully updated, and even semi-glamorous if you ask me. And you didn’t.
The Lost City
Directors: Aaron Nee(Band of Robbers), Adam Nee
Screenplay: Both Nees, Oren Uzie (Mortal Kombat)l, et al.
Cast: Sandra Bullock (Gravity), Channing Tatum (Magic Mike)
Run Time: 1h 52m
Rating: PG-13
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR's WCBE 90.5 It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com
