Movie Review: The Lost City (2022)

Synopsis: Still mourning the loss of her archaeologist husband, Loretta Sage reluctantly begins a promotional tour for her latest romance novel only to find her "fans" are much more enamored with Alan Caprison, the model who portrays her main character, Dash, on her novel covers. As she leaves the event in anger, Loretta is kidnapped by eccentric billionaire Abigail Fox, who wants Loretta to use her ancient language deciphering skills to help him locate the real-life treasure she describes in her latest book.

Who's in it? The movie stars Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Patti Harrison and Brad Pitt.

Review: My wife and I saw previews for this movie some time ago and both thought it looked interesting. So, when I came across it on one of our movie channels the other day, I quickly added it to our library. We finally had a chance to watch it last night and, after seeing it, my opinion of it is a bit mixed.

I'll start out by saying I think the movie's premise is a good one. I especially liked the fact Loretta (Bullock) was using her real-life archaeology skills and expertise about an extinct ancient culture when writing her novels, something that made Abigail Fox's (Radcliffe) interest in her a bit more believable than if she had just been a regular novelist who made the stuff up.

The movie also does have quite a few funny and enjoyable moments. I think I especially liked the running gag involving Loretta's "borrowed" sequined jumpsuit (paired with shoes that were not appropriate for a jungle). Plus, the mystery about where the treasure was (and whether or not it actually existed) did keep the movie from becoming too predictable.

I think my biggest problem with this movie was the casting choices. Bullock was awesome (as is usually the case) but, while I didn't think Tatum did a bad job as Alan, I just didn't feel like there was any believable chemistry between the co-stars. In all honesty, most of their interactions seemed a bit forced, especially when it came to the more romantic scenes. And, while I usually try not to put too much emphasis on this, the 16-year age difference between the two didn't help much.

I actually think the movie would have been considerably better had Brad Pitt been cast as Alan with Tatum playing Pitt's Jack Trainer character instead. Not only are Pitt and Bullock a lot closer in age, I feel like their chemistry was a 100 times better, making their short-lived flirting/sexual tension a lot more believable and interesting.

The movie also wastes Daniel Radcliffe's talents, in my opinion. Abigail is one of the most memorable characters from this movie but really doesn't get enough screen time for the film to take advantage of it. Personally, I would have much rather seen more scenes involving him and his eccentric ways and less of her publisher, Beth (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), who I didn't think was quite as funny as I think the movie wanted her to be.

Final Opinion: This movie had a good premise and decent overall execution, but I do think the pairing of Bullock and Tatum failed to do the movie justice, especially when Brad Pitt is so good in his limited number of scenes.

My Grade: C+