Movie: The Lost City

The Lost City is the perfect example of a movie designed totally for escapism.

There are no deep and meaningful underlying messages. The plot is best described as implausible but lots of fun, so much so you may find yourself laughing out loud, especially in the first half of the movie.

Much of the credit for that must go to the movie’s leads, Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. There’s great chemistry between the two and both brilliantly display their comic abilities. A brief cameo from Brad Pitt adds to the laughs.

Bullock plays bestselling adventure-romance novelist, Loretta Sage, who has written numerous books featuring Dr Angela Lovemore, an adventuress with beauty and brains, and her love interest Dash. Despite the success of her books, the former scholar has lost interest in the characters and is still grieving the loss of her husband, who was an archaeologist.

Bullock’s publisher Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) persuades Loretta to do one more book tour with Alan (Tatum), the male model who has appeared on the cover of all her books as Dash.

Alan has always got on Loretta’s nerves and now, given her feelings about her books, she is even more bothered by the limelight-loving man with the Fabio-ish flowing locks.

Fortunately for Loretta, Alan likes and cares for her. So when she is kidnapped by billionaire Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), Alan tracks her down with the help of Beth and his meditation coach Jack Trainer (Pitt) who also happens to be an ex special ops agent.

Fairfax kidnaps Loretta as he believes the Lost City featured in her latest book is real and that there’s a hidden treasure, the prized Crown of Fire, within the city.  The city is located on a volcanic island in the Atlantic that Fairfax has bought and he wants Loretta to decipher the hieroglyphic symbols that he believes will lead to the location of the crown.

When Trainer’s rescue of Loretta ends in a mess, Alan and Loretta find themselves trekking through the jungle, chased by rather unsavoury characters in an attempt to escape Fairfax’s clutches.

While Loretta knows Alan is no Dash, she eventually realises he’s not the dim-witted and vain man she has always thought he was. The journey only strengths Alan’s admiration for Loretta.

The concept behind the Lost City is certainly not new, fans of Romancing the Stone and the Indiana Jones movies will see many similarities. However, the by-play between Bullock and Tatum and Pitt’s cameo together with the performance of the supporting cast including Radcliffe and Randolph ensure this goofy romcom-adventure has its own vibe.

The Lost City officially releases on April 14 but a number of preview screenings are being held in selected cinemas from April 8.