Synopsis
Brilliant, but reclusive romance novelist Loretta Sage, best known for her adventure stories featuring handsome cover model Alan, is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire looking for the ancient lost city from her latest novel. Wanting to prove that he can be a hero in real life, Alan sets off to rescue her. Thrust into an epic jungle adventure, the unlikely pair will need to work together to survive the elements and find the city’s legendary treasure before it’s lost forever.
Sandra Bullock has co-starred in her fair share of comedies. She’s worked with such funny men/women as Ryan Reynolds (The Proposal) and Melissa McCarthy (The Heat), and now Hollywood heartthrob Channing Tatum in this textbook, cliché adventure flick, The Lost City, which surprisingly manages to pack in quite a lot of laughs despite being incredibly predictable.
Bullock stars as Loretta Sage, a romance novelist who is grieving after the loss of her partner. In a bid to make her agent happy, she throws together a cheap ending in her most recent novel to make the deadline. Begrudgingly accepting to do a tour to promote her latest book, she’s less than thrilled to be joined by Alan (Channing Tatum), the muscular hunk she has used throughout her career as her books cover star Dash McMahon.
After a falling out of sorts between Loretta and Alan, Loretta is kidnapped and forced into helping evil mastermind Abigail Fairfax locate the treasure of the lost city, after learning from Fairfax that it is a very real place. Abigail Fairfax is portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe who nails the antagonist role rather well. in that he sits back and let’s his goons do all the heavy lifting whilst he simply pulls the strings.
Going Solo
It’s up to Alan to mount a rescue mission, enlisting the help of Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt) who is your typical American special ops guy. He can get in and out without being seen and is very softly spoken, with luscious blonde locks of hair which he throws about in typical action film slow motion style as he, Alan, and Loretta all make it out the camp as it explodes behind them.
But of course, this being a film, things don’t go to plan.
The beauty of this film is that it knows what it is and knows what it’s delivering – silly, over the top action with explosive comedic chemistry between its two leads. It covers every textbook film trope of its nature, including the female underestimating the male’s ability to actually save her, not realising the male’s true feelings towards her despite it being heavily implied until it’s too late and she starts to develop feelings for him too, and the conclusion of good triumphs over evil.
The laughs come thick and fast. Whether it’s a penis reference or Loretta having to peel leeches off of a squeamish Alan before he asks her to check the front as well, waving his parts in her face which she’s pleasantly surprised by, or a chase scene in which 2 bikers end up crashing off the side of a cliff due to the pairs’ cunning skills, which leads them to question whether it was really their fault as the other bike rider was too close to the cliffs edge anyway.
Verdict
I’ve always appreciated a good solid comedy and after having endured such heavy hitters already this year with dark tones like The Batman and The Northman, it’s nice to change the pace and simply have some fun. Be sure to catch this one if you’re in the mood for a Saturday evening comfort film.
Written by James Oliver | BanterFlix Contributor