'The Lost City' is just what you've been looking for
Paramount
When watching “The Lost City,” a word comes to mind that isn’t often used when describing movies lately. Thinking, thinking … oh, right! The word is “fun.” “The Lost City” is fun. It knows what makes a movie fun and what people help a movie be fun, and then it proceeds to do what it can to provide a good time. Imagine that!
This isn’t to say that there is anything novel about a movie that nods to romantic adventures like “Romancing the Stone” while delivering a plot more reliant on charm than surprise. Channing Tatum playing a guy eager to prove that he’s more than his looks (“21 Jump Street,” “Magic Mike”) certainly isn’t a new challenge for the underrated actor, and for a while Sandra Bullock has deserved a stronger action-comedy than Paul Feig’s formulaic “The Heat” (which was quickly outdone by Feig’s “Spy”). At times “The Lost City” recalls “Long Shot,” another intersection between global travel, a powerful woman and a younger doofus. The new movie, like the 2019 film starring Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen, needs to make us want to join Bullock and Tatum on their journey and care if their tense pairing can soften into something sweeter. I certainly did.
Bullock plays romance novelist Loretta Sage, whose grief over losing her husband isn’t exactly sparking creative energy. This also isn’t helped by the ongoing presence of Alan (Tatum), the cover model for her popular “Lovemore and Dash” series who is both a walking excuse for shirt removal and a reminder of the literary compromises Loretta made to succeed. When wealthy and quietly menacing Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe) kidnaps her and demands that Loretta help him find the real Crown of Fire utilized in her book, it forces the author to go much farther from her home than she prefers and Alan a chance to show he’s more than just a handsome guy in a Fabio wig.
It’s worth repeating how many of the ideal people are involved here: Bullock and Tatum are just right for this sparring-but-promising duo, and Radcliffe (“Swiss Army Man,” “What If”) has shown repeatedly that his presence brings energy, flexibility and a sense of positivity (even as a villain). Another big star pops up in a small role, and if you’ve been paying attention to which huge name seems to enjoy being a goof, you might guess it. It’s great when he appears and sad when he’s done with the movie, which struggles to maintain the momentum of a very strong and very funny first half.
But “The Lost City” never, uh, loses its way completely, and achieves a nice message about moving on and being open to opportunity on its way around gunfights, awkward nights in a hammock and the overused but occasionally fitting reminder that they don’t make movies like this enough anymore.
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