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The Lost City doesn't sparkle quite as brightly as some classic treasure-hunting capers, but its stars' screwball chemistry make this movie well worth romancing.Read critic reviews
Audience Says
With lots of laughs and some likable stars, The Lost City is a fun, lighthearted adventure that passes the time painlessly.Read audience reviews
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The Lost City videos
The Lost City: Official Clip - The Van Fight
CLIP 2:24
The Lost City: Official Clip - Romantic Ending
CLIP 1:50
The Lost City: Official Clip - Jack Gets Shot
CLIP 2:03
The Lost City: Official Clip - Escaping Together
CLIP 2:57
The Lost City: Official Clip - Get Me Out of the Chair
CLIP 1:46
The Lost City: Official Clip - Covered in Leeches
CLIP 2:28
The Lost City: Official Clip - Motorcycle Attack
CLIP 2:59
The Lost City: Official Clip - Romance by the Fire
CLIP 2:28
The Lost City: Official Clip - Over the Top Opening
CLIP 1:38
The Lost City: Official Clip - Butt to Butt
CLIP 1:04
The Lost City: Featurette - Gentleman Bad Guy
FEATURETTE 1:21
The Lost City: Featurette - Wheelbarrow Escape Scene
FEATURETTE 0:55
The Lost City: Exclusive Featurette - The Cast of The Lost City
Reclusive author Loretta Sage writes about exotic places in her popular adventure novels that feature a handsome cover model named Alan. While on tour promoting her new book with Alan, Loretta gets kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire who hopes she can lead him to an ancient city's lost treasure from her latest story. Determined to prove he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, Alan sets off to rescue her.
It's a new spin on Romancing the Stone and as long as the leads are charming and the movie is fun, I have no problem with rehashing this formula. The Lost City mostly succeeds thanks to the winning chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. She plays a self-loathing romance author and he's her hunky and clueless cover model, and they both get into a treasure-hunting escapade and chased by scary men with guns thanks to a crazed rich kid (Daniel Radcliffe) looking for a titular lost city of yore to bolster his own rep. The movie stays on a consistently light wavelength even when death and sudden violence occurs. That jokey mentality assures the audience that the movie will not take things too seriously, and that relaxed-yet-antic attitude translates into fairly amusing banter with our leads. The movie does a good job of spacing out its comic set pieces and keeping things moving for its short 90 minutes. Not everything works as well as the leads though. Some storylines feel underplayed or forgotten until called upon for moments that don't feel earned. Radcliffe feels wasted as a petulant baddie without any fun or memorable angle. One of the best aspects is what happens to the movie's surprise cameo (spoiled via the movie's own trailer) but the ending resolution of this feels entirely pointless and undercuts its nerve. It's a movie that delivers exactly the kind of experience it advertises, and it's nice to still be able to see a comedy in theaters lifted by the appeal of two stars having a ball together. The Lost City is a formula rom-com with enough good-natured screwball comedy and enjoyable zaniness to coasts on charm and star power.
Nate's Grade: B
Mainstream comedies that actually make it to theatres are slim to none these days. I remember a time when there was possibly a big comedy coming out every one or two months, with at least half of them being good, but in today's climate, humour is just tough to get right. I was very happy to see that Paramount would be taking a chance and releasing a big comedy in The Lost City this year, but I truly didn't know to what to expect from it. After seeing it in theatres, I'm happy to say that I had a good time with it. It's not great, but it felt like a throwback comedy, just with a modern twist.
To put it simply, The Lost City follows Loretta (Sandra Bullock) as she's on a book tour with her cover model Alan (Channing Tatum) to promote the release of "The Lost City of D," but they are swept up in a kidnapping and find themselves on a real adventure in the jungle. Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe) is the reason Loretta was kidnapped in the first place, as he sees many similarities in her book to that of a real lost city. Being the privileged twerp that he is makes for a fun villainous storyline, even if it's pretty lame at times. Radcliffe aside (whom I still enjoyed), this film puts all of its weight on Tatum and Bullock to deliver the goods.
This premise is clever enough to work as a film, but it all comes down to who you cast and if they can make the material work. I never thought I needed to see this duo together, but I'm very happy they worked so well. On top of that, I have to admit that the best moments in the film feature Brad Pitt's character Jack Trainer. He isn't in the film much, but every second he was on screen had me laughing. Where I found the film to be slightly uneven though, was in the fact that I wasn't sure if it wanted to be funny or dramatic at times.
I'm all for heartfelt storylines as well as comedy, but I would argue that the majority of the humour is in the first half, while the second half gets a little more sentimental. These both worked in the movie, but the way the film begins gives absolutely no foreshadowing as to what the film will become by the end. I found that odd, but again, the cast sold all of the dialogue for me. From a few hilarious moments to some fun adventure/action throughout, as I said, I had a good time with this one.
In the end, The Lost City is exactly what I think moviegoers need right now. Nothing too serious or weighed down by heavy drama. This is a good old-fashioned, silly comedy/romance that I feel works for what it is. It's not going to be the type of comedy that a lot of people are going to watch over and over again, at least I don't think, but the heart of the film is in the right place and it never takes anything too seriously. Now playing in theatres, I'd give a recommendation to The Lost City.
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