The Lost City Review

March 23, 2022 at 6:33am
By Jason Stettner

This is an interesting change-up on the whole romantic tale comes to life, where a reclusive romance novelist ends up thrown into essentially the real thing. Being abducted by an eccentric and rich Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe) to find a hidden treasure. Loretta (Sandra Bullock) will need to use prior knowledge alongside working with her trusty cover art actor Alan (Channing Tatum) to escape.

There is however more to this adventure as she doesn’t necessarily just want to escape, as the prize at the end may be just as tantalizing to her as it is to Fairfax. This very much is a very straight forward story that follows two individuals on a wilderness trek in the hunt of a special lost treasure.

What’s interesting about this particular take is that it’s very much a comedy and aware of what’s going on. The core leads react realistically to the issues they face along the way and it makes fun of the fact that neither really are geared for this sort of scenario. Radcliffe plays a slightly unhinged, but motivated individual that’s after treasure and it’s nice to see his out there but balanced performance.

This does provide the odd laugh here or there with the primary narrative, but I did find the secondary one to be a tad slow and too random for me. It definitely does aim to mix up your whole thoughts on a traditional adventure that’s being presented, while at the same time doing exactly that in the process.

The performances here actually are quite well done, whereas the jokes seemed to be hit or miss for most. I did find some hilarity in the fact that they took a realistic, dry sort of humorous approach to the scenarios they were met with. No one really likes dealing with henchmen in a deadly sort of way, but it happens.

Just like everyone wants the dreamy rescuer, but that doesn’t always happen smoothly. It might almost be shocking in how badly that may turn out. While decently shot you could definitely tell that a good portion of this was heavily green screened and that was very apparent throughout.

They did visit some neat locations, and it had a fun easy going adventure vibe to it which was fine. Talking about adjustments, it also seems something was done with Bullock in some scenes as she seems strangely edited which felt unnecessary. It’s serviceable as a comedy, and generally a fine adventure to take part in.

The Conclusion

The Lost City can be funny, it’s realistic and dry take on this type of adventure definitely works for it. It’s essentially mocking the traditional two individuals stuck on a wild action adventure, but yet at the same time exactly is that sort of thing. It won’t really be too surprising, but it does have a decent message and can provide a laugh here or there.

It certainly leans heavily on its two leads and the brief presentation of another that pops in which was quite honestly the best portion of the experience. It certainly has fun with moments throughout and it was a very easy watch.

It wasn’t anything too wild and very predictable. At the same time it was very easy to take in and something that can be enjoyable. If you like the leads for what they’re mostly known for, it should hit the mark for you. It does something new, while also treading familiar waters.

The Lost City Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by Taro PR

Rating Overall: 6.6