La ciudad perdida

A cute and funny enough rom com, a few more of the jokes were stale than I would have liked, but overall it accomplished its goal. A few laughs, a few "awhs", and a whole lotta "omg is Channing Tatum hot"'d.

The first half of this movie is really funny. I was laughing more than most in the theater. There are so many well-written jokes and situational humor with about an 80% hit rate, including a few hilarious moments. The characters are fleshed out enough for me to care. The story is formulaic and relatively weak compared to the other aspects, but that's easily forgiven when it's making me laugh.

In the second half, the laughs slow down drastically. It gets a lot more serious with attempts at character arcs and story moments that aren't bad but are things we've seen a thousand times. I didn't hate watching it, but without as much comedy it's a much weaker movie.

The first half is easily seven stars. The second half is a weak six. I wouldn't mind watching this again but I wouldn't go out of my way to do so. (1 viewing, opening Thursday night 3/24/2022)

The opening scene reminded me of "Romancing The Stone" with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas, and as such, I couldn't help but compare "City" to "Stone" although this film. My verdict is that "Romancing The Stone" is funnier, better acted, and a just all-around better movie.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this, but on the whole, I did, some bits of it were pretty silly, but there were some nice moments, and a few bits that had me in stitches. Some of the sweeter, romance moments were maybe a little corny, but that's what was expected I guess.

Nice special effects, it looks great, I loved the locations used. You can argue it had a somewhat old fashioned, maybe old school vibe about it, but sometimes you just need a bit of silliness in your life.

Nicely acted, they all did a good job, Daniel Radcliffe was good fun, always enjoy his work.

It really does make the most of Channing Tatum's looks, and it does work, he is ridiculously handsome, and there are several tongue in cheek moments, he seems like a good sport.

7/10.

Yes, The Lost City is a sometime dimwitted, formulaic romantic adventure like Romancing the Stone and Indiana Jones with not much creativity that I could tell. No, it is not totally boring because it offers a relaxing antidote to COVID anxieties plaguing us for two years. The cutthroat island shenanigans, with reclusive romance novelist Loretta (Sandra Bullock) and her cover model Alan (Channing Tatum) are kidnapped looking for buried treasure.

What makes this romance mildly enjoyable is the charm of its stars, Sandy/Loretta just a bit too old but looking fab, and Channing, buff and self-deprecating enough to generate a spark with Loretta. Daniel Radcliff as baddie Abagail Fairfax seems out of place, but then that may be the point.

At our AMC-like theater there were a few other audience members far enough from us that we could cut up and converse, much like renting the theater for ourselves. Some solid scenes of repartee reminiscent of screwball comedies added to the pleasure of the island scenery and robust chases along with our not-always witty declamations.

I would recommend you staying home and enjoying the house invasion Windfall on Netflix except that we enjoyed being out and seeing what Hollywood could do when it barely tries. And when Brad Pitt does a cameo with surprising dexterity, your retro romance Lost City is fully updated, and even semi-glamorous if you ask me. And you didn't.