‘The Lost City’ movie review: Sandra Bullock in top form, but not much else

There is a better movie hiding in the debris of this one. The charming cast has gamely tried to bring it out, but are defeated at every turn with lazy writing and too many smug, meta references. All the allusions to Romancing the Stone, Indiana Jones and even The Mummy franchise only remind the viewer of what The Lost City lacks.

Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) used to be a best-selling adventure romance novelist. The death of her archaeologist husband five years ago has rendered her depressed and struggling to complete her latest novel.  

Her publicist, Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), anyway goes ahead and organises a grand book tour for the novel with Loretta in conversation with her handsome, but thick cover model Alan (Channing Tatum). Things are shot to hell at the first stop with Loretta dressed in a sequinned purple jumpsuit on the recommendation of her social media manager Allison (Patti Harrison), ripping off Alan’s wig. Just as the day cannot get worse, Loretta is kidnapped by eccentric billionaire and international criminal Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe).  

In another life, Loretta was a serious historian and her novels, which were Loretta’s way of getting her work out into the world, were based on actual research. Fairfax believes that Loretta can decipher the clues to an actual treasure, the Crown of Fire. 

There is an idyllic island, native songs, a volcano about to explode, undying love, the mandatory eccentric pilot devoted to his flying bucket of bolts (Oscar Nunez) and a wilful misunderstanding of what constitutes a treasure.  

Bullock looks lovely and has not lost any of her comic timing despite forays into horror and Oscar territory. Tatum provides the perfect foil to Bullock and their chemistry is so charming it breaks your heart that it is wasted on a mediocre film. Radcliffe does a wee bit of scenery chewing as the international crook; he does not seem to know when to dial it down. Brad Pitt as the navy seal-turned-CIA operative-turned yoga Yoda and finder of lost souls is beyond funny. 

If only the Nee Brothers, who apart from direction, also share screenplay credit with Oren Uziel and Dana Fox, had given the shiny star cast the movie they deserved, time in The Lost City would have been well spent. 

The Lost City is currently running in theatres