The Lost City (2022) Review

"I can taste his thoughts!"
-Alan Caprison



Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock), a romance-adventure novelist, is kidnapped by Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), who believes she can help him find a treasure that she wrote about in one of her books.  The cover-model from the books, Alan Caprison (Channing Tatum), teams up with an ex-Navy Seal (Brad Pitt) to rescue Loretta, but things don't go according to plan.


What Works:

I'm a sucker for a good adventure/treasure hunting movie.  Just like Uncharted from earlier this year, I love this type of movie.  The Lost City certainly leans more into the romantic-comedy side of adventure, but the adventurous elements are here all the same, and it's a lot of fun.

Sandra Bullock is fantastic as our main protagonist.  From the trailer, I thought she was going to be a pretty one-note character, but that's not the case.  The opening reveals that she is mourning the death of her husband and her character's journey is about still being able to enjoy life even when you lose the love of your life.  Loretta is much more complex than one would expect from a movie like this and it gives the movie some weight.

Channing Tatum is also excellent.  He and Bullock have amazing chemistry and bounce off each other extremely well.  Rom-coms need chemistry to work and these two have it in spades.  The comedy in this movie is very hit-or-miss and almost all of the hits come from them.

The other highlight is Brad Pitt.  He doesn't have a ton of screen-time, but owns every second he has.  He's a great foil to Tatum and a lot of fun.  His action sequence is really badass and I almost want a whole movie about his character.


What Sucks:

The first act of the movie didn't quite grab me.  None of our characters are all that likable in the fist act, except for Alan, and their stories weren't quite grabbing me.  Once we get to the island and see more sides of the characters, then I really got into the movie, but the beginning is a little slow.

Like I said, not all of the humor works.  The stuff that doesn't work is almost entirely from the side characters.  Everybody has at least one funny moment, so it's not that bad, but anytime we were off with the side characters, I wanted to get back to Loretta and Alan.


Verdict:

The Lost City is pretty much exactly what you would expect and it owns it, which makes it a very fun movie.  It's funny, the chemistry between Bullock and Tatum is fantastic, and Pitt is wonderful.  Not all of the humor lands and it takes a little bit to get going, but this movie has definitely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good 

 

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