Maybe Jungle Cruise last year set the trend for old-fashioned action adventures in exotic settings, Uncharted followed a few weeks ago and now in cinemas we have The Lost City. Sandra Bullock stars as Loretta, a romance novelist who, whilst on a book tour, gets caught up in a kidnapping plot with only her cover model, Alan (Channing Tatum) around to help her.
Seeing the trailers, I was immediately reminded of Romancing the Stone and its sequel. It certainly has the same mixture of peril and laughs as those, though, Loretta feels more like an older version of Bullock’s character in the 90s underrated thriller The Net. The plot is fairly standard stuff with Daniel Radcliffe’s hammy villain searching for the lost city and its promised treasure whilst trying to force Loretta into helping, as he thinks her past will provide the knowledge he requires.
But directors Aaron and Adam Nee keep things moving at a rapid enough pace that I was happy to ignore the ridiculousness of the story. Bullock is a lot of fun and has great chemistry with Tatum, and there is a splendid cameo from Brad Pitt.
The rest of the cast make less of an impression so the action does flag a bit when the main characters are off-screen.
Lightweight but very enjoyable.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10