'The Lost City' Review: A Goofy Adventure-Comedy That Falls Just Above Mediocrity [SXSW 2022]
Charming performances and great cast chemistry are not enough to elevate this film beyond an afternoon time-filler on standard cable.
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
Right now we live in an Algorithmic world. Everything we watch, consume and read is sorted, judged and divvied out to those who, mathematically, would enjoy it the most. This is not lost on creators, modern creators are faced with the decision of who to please, do you create to please your heart or do you create to please the Algorithm? The Lost City has clearly made its choice. In fact, the movie as a whole feels like it was not only created for the Algorithm but by an Algorithm as well. The plot is a standard and simple to follow adventure story, the stars are all names that will draw a crowd, the setting is scenic and pleasing to the eye as well as being a pleasant place to shoot a film for three months. On paper, it should work. In practice, it feels soulless and robotic. There is no defining style, no interesting plot deviations, no interesting use of character. What is there is a film tailor-made to make its money on opening day then quickly be sold into the ether of streaming fodder or basic cable.
The plot surrounds Sandra Bullock as an Erotic Novelist who has left her adventurists ways behind her after the untimely death of her Archeologist husband. She makes it no mystery that she loathes her series and her cover model whom she is paired with against her wishes played by Channing Tatum. An inclusion in her latest book based on actual research grabs the attention of a megalomaniacal billionaire played by Daniel Radcliffe who thinks that she is the key to finding the legendary Crown of Fire and has her kidnapped to help him find it. After a failed rescue attempt, the novelist and the model have to navigate the jungle to safety and the Crown of Fire with the billionaire hot on their heels. If the plot summary ended there you could probably guess where the story would end up from there. The novelist learns to love the model as they discover that the true treasure was each other all along. There are no plot twists to spoil, no interesting developments, no real adventure besides a jungle romp. There was so little effort put into the plot that there are in fact several glaring plot holes that could have easily been worked around if any of the five writers would have sat down and thought it through. The jungle setting is used like every other comedy in a jungle setting; one character has to comedically remove leeches from another characters hindquarters. What could have been interesting and funny if played off properly could have been her status as a famous Erotic Novelist but that was pushed aside so quickly after the first act that it plays absolutely no part in the rest of the movie aside from placing dumb guy Tatum next to smart girl Bullock so they can unconvincingly fall for each other.
The cast does well with what they are given. Bullock, Tatum, and Radcliff are all charming and witty enough to ring out as much humor as you can from a series of Dick Jokes and Pratfalls. Even Brad Pitt puts forth a very comedic performance in his ten minutes of screen time. They all play off each other well enough, they are all in fact professional comedic actors, but there are no real characters in the film. Bullock plays a slightly annoyed version of herself, Tatum falls back neatly into the dumb guy type-casting, and Pitt and Radcliff just reprise their rolls from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and Now You See Me 2 respectively. These are all great actors that unfortunatly come off as hired guns placed in their spots to fill a Marquee with enough recognizable names to capture the “let’s go see anything” audience. If you really think about it, each star seems to be in place to attract a different generation of fans; Bullock with the Gen Y crowd, Tatum draws the Gen X and stoner comedy crowd and Radcliffe is the millennial prince. The only thing that is to be in awe of is the fact that these actors have any chemistry at all.
In terms of production, every aspect is competent enough to fill a standard expected from a moderately budgeted feature film. There are no risks taken nor effort placed into the instant production value that comes from filming in on the edge of a jungle in the Dominican Republic. Even with the scenic location there was a lot of questionable choices on where to include CGI. Whenever a practical set felt underwhelming it was surrounded by CGI to break up the visual monotony. There are two especially questionable shots in the film where it is clear that there are actual actors at an actual location during the wide shots but the close-ups are clearly actors in a studio in-front of a green screen. This could boil down to shooting limitations due to the COVID pandemic but someone was clearly shot at those locations at some point so the green screen inclusion is nothing but confusing.
To say this movie does not deserved to be watched would be a disservice to the hundreds of secondary crew members and CGI artists that placed a moderate amount of effort into this film. Make no mistake, this film will make its money without a crowd flocking to the theaters after its opening weekend. This is a popcorn flick that gives you something to watch when there is literally nothing else to see. So if you have work to do, dishes to wash, or laundry to sort, throw this on to pass the time as you occasionally chuckle at their antics in between Charmin commercials.