Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) was once fond of archeology with her husband, but after the death of her husband, Loretta retired into seclusion and began to write erotic adventure novels in which the beautiful Angela Lovemore, a kind of Indiana Jones in a skirt, travels to all sorts of exotic places in search of archaeological artifacts, and she is accompanied on these travels by the courageous long-haired handsome blond Dash.
Loretta has published another novel about the search for the treasures of the ancient city, and her publisher Beth Hatten (Davine Joy Randolph) demanded that the writer speak at the launch of a new bestseller along with Alan Caprison (Channing Tatum) – a male model whose image in the form of the same Dash adorns all Loretta’s book covers.
Loretta really can’t stand Alan, considering him a dumb jock who solves any problems in this life by taking off his T-shirt, but she has nowhere to go, and besides, she also had to wear a creepy purple jumpsuit with sequins that her publisher took to the presentation for rent.
Immediately after the presentation, the writer was kidnapped by henchmen of the eccentric millionaire Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe). Abigail told Loretta that he was after the so-called fiery crown that belonged to King Kalaman. Abigail has an ancient scroll that shows the location of the tomb. He knows which island the tomb is on, but he has never been able to find it. So he needs someone who can decipher the characters on the parchment. And the writer is exactly the same person.
Loretta refused to help Fairfax – with all due respect, of course. However, a person like Abigail is not used to accepting refusals, so the writer is taken by force to the island.
After learning about Loretta’s kidnapping, Beth and Alan think about how to save her. The police will not accept a report of the loss until a day later, so you have to turn to someone else. And then Alan suggests calling his former mentor Jack Coach (Brad Pitt). According to Alan, Jack is well trained and will be able to help them. In addition, it turned out that the writer wears a smart watch with location, and her smartphone, from which this location can be tracked, remained with Beth.
And they start a rescue operation, which involves Jack Coach and Alan – he wants to prove to Loretta that he is capable of more than taking off his shirt.
***
The plot of this film is basically the same as that of Robert Zemeckis’ film Romancing the Stone, which was released in 1984 and starred Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. By the way, “Romance with the Stone” itself appeared for a reason – it was an attempt by 20th Century Fox to cash in on the box office success of Paramount Pictures’ Raiders of the Lost Ark, which, with a budget of $ 18 million, collected as much as $ 354 million worldwide . “Romance with a Stone” had a noticeably modest release, but was also very successful, grossing $86 million on a budget of $10 million.
In the new film, the characters are noticeably changed: instead of a tough adventurer – a dumb jock-model, instead of an infernal villain – a caricature millionaire, well, the style of the picture can be described as “Arrangement of “Romance with a Stone” for schoolchildren.”
In the “Lost City” they are very diligent, but, as a rule, they joke not too funny, and adventures and chases as such are measured rather sparingly here – apparently, the budget did not allow.
Sandra Bullock as Loretta looks good, but that’s about it. Somehow this is all completely without a twinkle, as if working out a long-bored performance. Nothing lights up in her eyes at the sight of Tatum’s character, running around the jungle in a jumpsuit with sequins is a tiring thing, even when it happens just against the background of a green backdrop, and her current face, carefully designed by a terribly fashionable and terribly expensive plastic surgeon, is on large plans looks, frankly, somewhat frightening: the nose is like that of Michael Jackson, and the lips are like the Joker from the first “Batman”, and this, frankly, is very annoying for Bublik and me.
It bothered us in the previous film “Unforgiven”, where her heroine came out in this form after twenty years in prison, it bothered us here too. Also, since Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman clearly lined up the faces of the same surgeon, they are now confusingly similar, which, in general, is also not very good.
By the way, Sandra said that she is going to give up acting, so it is quite possible that this “Lost City” will be her last picture.
Channing Tatum was quite self-deprecatingly fooling around as Alan. The role corresponded one hundred percent, and that his character underwent a significant transformation in a short time – well, these are questions for the screenwriters: Seth Gordon was responsible for the basis of the plot, and both directors and two more screenwriters helped him to introduce all sorts of absurdities into the script.
Where Brad Pitt came from at all is known: he and Sandra starred together in the film Faster than a Bullet (this is what they called Bullet Train in Russia), which will be released in July, and she persuaded him to appear in The Lost City. Moreover, this is not even quite a cameo, but a more or less full-fledged, although completely episodic role, and Pitt played it perfectly!
Davine Joy Randolph portrayed a kind of traditional African-American woman of immense size with characteristic gimmicks and a characteristic manner of speaking. It was funny, but nothing more. By the way, I found out that Dahine received a bachelor’s degree from Temple University in classical vocals, and then also received a master’s degree from the Yale School. And she is an actress of musicals and plays in performances of repertory theaters. But here, obviously, she simply portrayed what was required of her.
Well, I’ll mention Oscar Nunez (Oscar from The Office), who played a cheerful pilot in love with a goat here. Oscar (guess what his character’s name was here? That’s right, Oscar) in this role was pulled off quite selflessly and funny.
What’s the verdict? Despite the noticeable jambs of the plot, not too impressive staging and mediocre acting, in general it all looks tolerable: if you don’t have high hopes for the picture and don’t consider that this is a new “Romance with a Stone”, then in principle it will do for a one-time watching with family or friends, but do not forget to cheer yourself up with strong drinks to enhance the romantic effect.
The Lost City / The Lost City
Director: Aaron Nee, Adam Nee Cast: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Dawain Joy Randolph, Brad Pitt, Oscar Nunez, Patti Harrison, Bowen Young, Stephen Lang, Joan Pringle
Budget: $68M, Worldwide gross: $187M
Adventure comedy, USA, 2022, 112 min.