Movie Review: ‘The Lost City’ a solid action-comedy

By Matt Pascarella

Rated: PG-13

Runtime: 1 hour, 52 minutes

Loretta is having trouble finishing her new book which she needs to have ready soon for her book tour – a book tour she will never forget. Loretta is saddened from the loss of her husband and has isolated herself because of it.

What ends up happening to her will take her in directions she was never expecting – both physically or otherwise – in this action-packed, entertaining movie starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Oscar Nunez, Patti Harrison, Brad Pitt and Bowen Yang.

As Loretta (Bullock) starts her book tour for her newest book “The Lost City of D,”  she is annoyed and slightly frustrated. More of the crowd wants to see her cover model, Alan (Tatum), whom she described as a “body wash commercial,”  than hear her talk about her new book.

After the first stop of her tour doesn’t go well, Loretta wants to stop writing and stay home. Alan even says to her, “You are so afraid of life hurting, that you’ve stopped living.”

That is all about to change. Loretta is kidnaped by henchman and brought to Abagail Fairfax (Radcliffe) who needs her help to decipher symbols and find Calaman’s Tomb and in it, the Crown of Fire. King Calaman was the first man to build a city on the Atlantic Ocean.

Alan calls Jack Trainer (Pitt) to save Loretta and insists on going with Jack to which he begrudgingly agrees.

Fast forward to Alan and Loretta on their own, working to escape the jungle. At some point, they are pursued by more henchmen. After this, beware of the leeches scene.

Afterward, things get a little cozy between the two. And then they get real.

All the while, Beth (Randolph) is on her way to save Loretta. She gets some help from an unlikely lionheart along the way.

I was hesitant to review two movies in a row about recluse authors. However, Loretta is very different from Harris Shaw in that she is not a nasty person only out for herself. While some of her actions are defined as selfish, she gets thrown into a much different book tour than Shaw went on.

Without giving anything away, it was obvious relatively early on in the movie what the end result would be for Loretta. That’s really my only complaint for this movie – mild predictability. And I mean only a very small amount. This is an excellent, funny action movie.

Filmed in the Dominic Republic, the scenery is magnificent and compliments the plot well. I saw it on the big screen, and it paid off big time. It’s worth a trip to the theater to laugh and gasp during this fun adventure.

Bullock and Tatum have superb on-screen chemistry. I’ve seen Tatum in a few movies, and I think this is a different type of character for him. Radcliffe as a villain was pretty great, too.

Make sure you stick around for the end credits. It will have you asking “quid deinde?”

Two sequin dresses up.

Now playing in theaters. <