“The Lost City” is a perfectly pleasant romantic comedy that accomplishes everything it sets out to do, which is mostly to just have beautiful actors fall entertainingly in love in the jungle.
The age of frequent rom- coms on the big screen came to an end many years ago, but “The Lost City” proves that it is not a lost art. Take some friendly, pretty actors — in this case, Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock — and send them on a raucous adventure where they have some laughs and fall in love. “The Lost City” doesn’t remake the formula so much as embrace it to strong returns.
Though it does give actor Daniel Radcliffe a marvelous chance to shed his Harry Potter past.
“The Lost City” is currently playing in theaters and is not yet available to stream at home.
Bullock plays romance novelist Loretta Sage, who is stuck in a rut and considering the end of her career after her husband’s death. Tatum plays Alan, the studly cover model of all of Loretta’s books, who has been pining for her for years and doesn’t want to see the series come to an end.
When Loretta’s latest novel — “The Lost City of D” — contains some actual facts about a lost treasure, she is kidnapped to a tropical island to help bad guy Radcliffe locate that treasure. Alan then sets out to save her.
“The Lost City” is a good romantic comedy. Bullock and Tatum are true pros and have good chemistry, and sending them awkwardly through the jungle provides a lot of strong laughs and worthwhile character development. It’s easy and entertaining to watch them fall in love while falling over each other on their traipse through the brush.
The movie doesn’t blow anything out of the water terms of quality or story. It’s all pretty standard. But it’s done well, and that’s good enough for this light-hearted adventure film.
Where “The Lost City” really shines is in the supporting characters. Brad Pitt has a fun and memorable role as a professional rescue expert, while Oscar Nunez from “The Office” pops in for a really weird, really fun character.
The real standout is Daniel Radcliffe, the boy wizard now trying to create an adult career. He plays the villain, Abigail Fairfax, and absolutely hams it up as the bad guy. This movie is worth watching for Radcliffe alone, though thankfully there’s more to enjoy than just him.
“The Lost City” is like the romantic comedies of old. Fun, charming, solid performances and an acceptable amount of danger and action. It’s a very quaint film.
For more, check out this week’s Sentinel Cinema podcast at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/oscars-aftermath-and-the-lost-city/id1495021878?i=1000555958330
