REVIEW #162 The Lost City (2022)

The Lost City, directed by Aaron and Adam Nee follows author Loretta Sage as she completes her latest novel in her famously popular book series. Touring with her handsome cover mode Alan, Loretta is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire who believes she holds the key to finding The Lost City and it’s hidden treasure. 

CAST & THE ACTING 

The acting was certainly what I expected, cliche and silly yet full of heart and very funny. The Lost City has Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum leading as Loretta Sage and her cover model Alan, the pair display excellent chemistry that can illustrate both hatred and love effectively. With the exception of the very start of the film, both of them executed their dialogue well and the jokes landed more often than not. Daniel Radcliffe portrayed the eccentric billionaire antagonist and I actually enjoyed his performance, very similar to his role in Now You See Me 2. Brad Pitt’s role was just a brief cameo of no more then ten minutes but he was absolutely brilliant, every bit of comedy landed when he was involved. Da’Vine Joy Randolph played Loretta’s publisher Beth and Patti Harrison played her social media handler Allison, unfortunately I thought most of their comedy fell flat, especially Harrisons poor attempt at a woke millennial. Randolph had a few funny moments but I think the writing restricted her performance. Channing Tatum continues his run of being the comical front man and he is certainly finding success with it but as a whole the acting across the board was funny but very very cliche. 

THE STORYLINE

The film found success within the romantic element of the plot but was less successful with the adventure aspect. Apart from being set in a jungle and there being a lost city to find, the adventure definitely took more of a back seat which meant I really didn’t care about their journey at all. I just didn’t have any interest in how, when or if they found this lost city and it’s hidden treasure. That being said, I was invested in the relationship between Loretta and Alan. Obviously we all knew what was going to happen between them but I still enjoyed the steps between Loretta resenting Alan and her finally falling for him. The character Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt) was genius, only a brief cameo but for that eight or so minutes I was laughing the whole time, that was some of the best writing in the whole film. However the start of the film really disappointed me, it was almost like Brad Pitt’s appearance kickstarted the film, the comedy before that point, the comedy didn’t land once, the characters were annoying and I thought I was in for a long film! Fortunately the pacing picks up and storyline really kicks into gear. Overall the storyline can be summarised as a whole load of silly fun, it has plenty of cliche and possible even cringey moments but nonetheless I did enjoy it because that’s exactly what I expected.

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

I am actually quite torn with this category, there were moments where the cinematography was brilliant but the green screen was so evident in a lot of the scenes. There was a mix of on location filming in the Dominican Republic and CGI/green screen but it wasn’t subtle to say the least. I guess with a comedy adventure film we don’t need the most realistic CGI setting but it still pulls me out of the film when it’s that noticeable. To highlight the positives though, I did love the jungle surroundings and the Dominican Republic was a nice choice because it’s absolutely beautiful and it helps create that adventure film atmosphere. I preferred the scenes with darker lighting, whether that be because of the nighttime setting, the deep mist of the jungle or the darkness of the caves. I also want to mention the editing of the trailer here too because I feel like a lot of the best jokes were included in the trailer and they almost tried to hide it by not using that exact take in the final film. They changed a lot of the scenes slightly in the final edit and I actually think they were better in the trailer. So the editing could have been better there. 

OVERALL (6.8/10)

The Lost City doesn’t break any new ground in the comedy adventure genre, excelling as a romance more than anything. With the exception of the first 20 minutes where the comedy was awful, the rest of the film was very funny and Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock have fantastic chemistry that delivers laughs and a whole lot of fun. Sometimes we just need a cliche comedy film to enjoy right? Well that’s exactly what this is, it’s not the best film in the world and it’s certainly not one of the great comedy action films but despite that I enjoyed it and I believe it fulfilled its purpose. It’s perfect to go and see with your friends, probably even better to view with your partner, just switch off and enjoy the comedy! 

Thanks for reading.

Callan