TMS Movie Review: The Lost City

(Fortis Films / Paramount Pictures)

Someone—most likely Seth Gordon—definitely came up with the concept for Adam & Aaron Nee’s new adventure-romcom The Lost City after revisiting Robert Zemeckis’ Romancing the Stone (1984) and Anne Fletcher’s The Proposal (2009). Gordon is the man behind the hit dark comedy Horrible Bosses (2011), yet surprisingly not the director nor screenwriter of The Lost City despite the sole story credit. While Romancing the Stone and The Proposal still hold up on modern viewing, as does a lot of Horrible Bosses despite some now dated gags, The Lost City is a blend of bland and amusing. We get the now familiar and successful trope of Sandra Bullock paired with a good looking, younger male star in a goofy comedy, yet it still falters slightly.

Loretta Sage (Bullock) is a middle-aged former archeologist who switched over to penning romance-adventure novels after her husband’s death. What used to be a distraction from her grief, is now a nuisance to herself as she sabotages her latest book tour and embarrasses her regular cover model, Alan Caprison (Channing Tatum). Before she realizes what’s happening, Loretta is kidnapped by billionaire Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe) who believes the exotic lost city of her new novel is real and wants her to show him where it is. Alan and secret service agent Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt) are to Loretta’s rescue.

(Fortis Films / Paramount Pictures)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Patti Harrison co-star as Loretta’s PR team who scramble to make sure she’s safe. The Lost City has a lot of potential to be a smash hit. Bullock and Tatum are naturals with comedic material and have all the necessities for box-office appeal, as proven with past action-comedy hits like Bullock in Donald Petrie’s Miss Congeniality (2000) and Tatum in Phil Lord & Chris Miller’s 21 Jump Street (2012). Radcliffe is impressively entertaining as the kooky, high class villain of Lost City, while it’s fun to see Pitt on the side as a tongue-in-cheek glorified cameo. The Lost City appears to be the Nee brothers’ first studio feature, which might explain its lack of proper cinematic vision. It aesthetically feels like a generic blockbuster churned out by Paramount as an easy cash grab. The humor is fine, though mostly lands because of the cast’s delivery more than the writing; which isn’t surprising since one of the screenwriters, Dana Fox, is partly responsible for mediocre flicks like Peter Billingsley’s Couples Retreat (2009) and Craig Gillespie’s Cruella (2021).

Yet, even with its weaknesses and serious effort from the viewers to suspend practical logic for the plot’s progression, I might still recommend The Lost City for Bullock’s and Tatum’s performances and chemistry, who are a no-brainer of an on-screen couple. Also—and this might be the most nit-picking I’ve ever done in a movie review—but the bonus scene in the middle of the end credits is really stupid. Bonus scenes are supposed to be an extra joke or tease for a sequel. But this one just reminds you how dumb The Lost City’s universe is and ruins the mood of an otherwise easy viewing.