The Lost City (2022) – Review/ Summary (with Spoilers)
In this action/adventure comedy, Sandra Bullock finds someone new to play the fool to her straight man character, as she goes from novelist to adventurer.
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In this action/adventure comedy, Sandra Bullock finds someone new to play the fool to her straight man character, as she goes from novelist to adventurer.
| Director(s) | Aaron Nee, Adam Nee |
| Screenplay By | Oren Uziel, Dana Fox, Adam Nee, Aaron Nee |
| Date Released | 3/25/2022 |
| Where To Watch | In Theaters |
| Genre(s) | Action, Adventure, Comedy, Romance |
| Duration | 1 Hour 32 Minutes |
| Content Rating | PG-13 |
| Noted Cast | |
| Loretta | Sandra Bullock |
| Beth | Da’Vine Joy Randolph |
| Abigail Fairfax | Daniel Radcliffe |
| Alan | Channing Tatum |
| John Trainor | Brad Pitt |
Film Summary
5 years ago, Loretta lost her husband John, and since then, she has barely left the house, never mind putting that much effort into her latest romance adventure novel “The Lost City of D.” This is to the ire of her publisher Beth who has heavily invested in her and wants her to churn out more things. But, at this point, Loretta is done. She only started writing this franchise because the actual information about lost cities and her historical interest couldn’t sell. So without the love of her life, what does she have to embellish?
Well, unfortunately for her, Abigail Fairfax, the first son of a media mogul, has the money and interest to fund an expedition into a story Loretta seemingly stumbled into. One about a ruby crown lost somewhere on an island in the Atlantic. He kidnaps Loretta to force her to help him, thus leading to Beth, Loretta’s cover model Alan, and Alan’s friend John Trainor heading to a remote island to rescue her from Abigail’s clutches.
Things To Note
- Reason(s) for Film Rating: Cursing (Very minor), Violence (gun violence, blood, and use of chloroform), Sexual Content (Channing Tatum’s bare behind), Miscellaneous (occasional drinking)
- There is a mid-credit scene
Character Descriptions
Please Note: This character guide is not an exhaustive list of every cast member, and character descriptions may contain what can be considered spoilers.
Loretta
Originally, Loretta wanted to write about various places in the world from a historical perspective since her dissertation was on a vaguely known location. But, that didn’t pay the bills, and while she did go on adventures with her husband John and quite enjoyed that, she wanted to pull her weight. Thus Dale and Dr. Lovermore were born and gave Loretta an outlet to talk about history and her archaeological interest while telling saucy tales.
Beth
The closest thing to a friend that Loretta has is Beth. She is her publisher and manager and even hires someone to handle Loretta’s social media. Now, as for who Beth is outside of the work she does for Loretta? Your guess is as good as mine for while we meet Beth’s grandma, the only thing we learn about her is that she is married to her job.
Abigail Fairfax
While the older of his media mogul father’s sons, Abigail didn’t inherit the empire but still has more than enough money to do things like look for the stuff money can’t buy. This is where Loretta came in for he stumbles across her book and her seemingly being able to translate a remote island’s cave drawings. With this information, he believes he can get the Crown of Fire before a volcano likely destroys and/ or buries the treasure, and thus he seeks out and kidnaps Loretta.
Alan
Alan, mainly known as Dale, the cover model for Loretta’s books, is one of three children, with his siblings being sisters, who came from Sarasota with long-held desires to be a model as a means to get away from home and travel. Which he has done, but it seems while he may have gotten to see parts of the world, he isn’t well-read.
John Trainor
John is a veteran who focuses on peace and meditation, and when Loretta is kidnapped, John is the first person Alan thinks of to orchestrate a rescue mission.
Review
Highlights
John Trainor’s Action Scenes
While John isn’t in the film for too long, nearly everything you watch Brad Pitt do makes you wish he was. For as seen in the trailer, he is suave and cool. However, what you don’t see in the trailer is him taking out Abigail’s men, with Alan wanting to help, and the scenes being a little bit flinch-worthy.
The Comedy
Sandra Bullock loves playing the straight man to someone a bit more slapstick, and while Channing Tatum is no Melissa McCarthy, him playing someone young, dumb, and muscular leads to many comical moments. Now, as someone who will sit stone face through a live stand-up set, let me say, if I laughed a handful of times, you’ll probably find the combination of Tatum and Bullock hilarious. But I’d even add in Randolph, who is certainly no slouch. Especially as she deals with this rather eccentric man on her way to rescue Loretta.
Low Point
Abigail’s Motive To Be A Villain Is Weak
How hard is it to write a villain? Especially a villain who doesn’t just do bad things, but who is either so evil you hate them or is only considered evil because they are misunderstood? With Abigail, he is just upset about his little brother being a better kiss a** than him, and so he obsesses over things other people can’t buy.
I don’t know about you, but Abigail’s insecurities being so high he’d kidnap someone doesn’t make him a good villain. And mind you, Radcliffe does his best to give Abigail some sort of bravado. Still, a performance can only be as great as the character written, and he isn’t able to compensate for the glaring shortcomings of his character.
On The Fence
Tatum and Bullock Don’t Make For A Believable Couple
When it comes to comedic chemistry, Bullock and Tatum are ace. However, they don’t really make sense as each other’s love interests. I get her books are basically her fantasies of going on adventures with someone like him, rather than her average-looking husband. But, while you can see Alan is making an effort to catch up to Loretta intelligence-wise, he is so far behind. On top of that, there are just no real sparks there. Which isn’t helped at all by Loretta calling Alan a dumb model for most of the movie and treating him as if he thinks he is actually Dale from the books.
So when they try to steer the ship towards making us see them as a believable couple, especially with how she talks about her husband? I mean, if they painted Alan as Mr. Right Now and not a potential Mr. Right, I could go with it. But with Alan seemingly having a long-time crush on Loretta? It’s a bit of a struggle, even with the whole rescue mission, to take their relationship’s transformation seriously.
Overall
Our Rating: Mixed (Divisive)
The Lost City feels like a Netflix movie that they had a wide release for, like Red Notice. Because, as much as it feels like your usual fun action/adventure, it doesn’t necessarily feel big and something made for the big screen. Instead, it feels a tad formulaic, especially when playing on the strengths of its cast, and feels immensely safe, like it is made to appeal to an algorithm.
Hence the mixed label. While hilarious and overall enjoyable, The Lost City feels like a numbers film of a streaming network that has an initial big splash but then disappears into the depths of hundreds of other films offered that don’t have much if any, replay value.
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