#18: THE LOST CITY

 

Starring Channing Tatum, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Radcliffe and Brad Pitt. Written by Oren Uziel, Dana Fox, Adam Nee and Aaron Nee. Directed by Adam Nee and Aaron Nee. 112 minutes. $68-$74 million budget.

The plot, which took four people to write, sees grieving author of romance novels, and her super handsome, but slightly dumb, cover model get kidnapped by an ultra-rich baddie, escape and then traipse across a tropical island on the trail of ancient treasure. Aaaand that's it.

With Tatam as the cover model, Bullock as the author and Radcliffe as the villain, this is a 21st Century retelling of the vastly superior 1984 Romancing the Stone with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas.

The Lost City is quite funny and utterly inoffensive. You'll smile, chortle, and laugh, especially when Brad Pitt arrives to steal the movie from absolutely everyone. Stay for the post credit sting if you want full closure on that particular story thread.

BTW, I thought Daniel Radcliffe was rather good in this, he's finally lost that awkward acting style of his and now seems very relaxed in his roles, and he was good as the baddy, actually everyone was good at their jobs in this, from an acting point of view. The rest of it, the direction and storytelling was okay, nothing fantastic, or special, just run of the mill. This reminded me of the inferior Netflix film Red Notice starring Ryan Renyolds, Gal Gadot, and Dwyane 'The Rock' Johnson which too involved chasing around tropical locations, avoiding baddies in search of treasure, likewise the really much, much worse Unchartered. In contrast The Lost City wasn't nearly as Meh or bland as the former or as utterly shit as the later and was, in contrast quite funny and enjoyable.

I just wish it had been funnier and more frothy, say like the trailer. Beyond that. I have nothing more to add. It didn't fill me with rage or bile, and I quite liked it. 

So, why waste any more time. This gets a 6/10