A reclusive romance novelist on a book tour with her cover model gets swept up in a kidnapping attempt that lands them both in a cutthroat jungle adventure.
Sandra Bullock plays Loretta Sage, a successful romance-adventure writer who appears to be having a midlife crisis. After the death of her archaeologist husband, John, a few years prior, Loretta lost the will to write. When he was alive, they would travel to faraway places, and her stories came to her based on their adventures together, but now, without him, she has become reclusive and lives every day at home, soaking in the bathtub, drinking chardonnay. When her publicist Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) calls to remind her that the book tour for her latest novel, ‘The Lost City of D,’ is a go, all Loretta must do is finish the last chapter.
Several months later, Loretta is promoting the book along with Alan Caprison (Channing Tatum), the dimwitted cover model for all of her novels, when she is kidnapped by eccentric billionaire and playboy Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe). He states that in her latest book, Loretta used authentic ancient hieroglyphics as a way for her hero, Dash McMahon, to discover the lost city, but he also believes that it is an actual clue to locating the real city, situated on an island in the Atlantic and that Loretta knows where it is. Naturally, she feigns ignorance, but Abigail insists that she translate a piece of ancient parchment he discovered on the island.
With Alan having witnessed Loretta’s kidnapping and the police refusing to believe his far-fetched story, he and Beth decide to hire Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt), a Navy Seal-turned-CIA agent, with the intent of tracking Loretta down and rescuing her. Against his better judgment, Jack allows Alan to accompany him on his mission, where they both succeed in rescuing Loretta. After fleeing into the jungle, Jack is shot and killed, and now Loretta and Alan, away from the lavish comforts of home, must navigate the deadly wilderness and try to discover the lost city before Abigail and his henchmen do.
“The Lost City” is an updated version of Robert Zemeckis’ 1984 action-adventure outing, “Romancing the Stone,” which starred Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito. Here, Bullock fills in for Turner while Tatum takes on Douglas’ dashing adventurer, and while Bullock and Tatum light up the screen with their palpable onscreen chemistry, they pale in comparison to Douglas and Turner. The movie won’t win any awards for originality, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. The cast, overall, is engaging, but Pitt’s Jack Trainer, essentially a glorified cameo, steals the show. Kudos to Daniel Radcliffe for continuing to accept roles far removed from his good-guy Harry Potter persona; here, he chews up the scenery and has a blast doing so. If you’re looking for an escape for a few hours to take your mind off everything in the world right now, “The Lost City” will fulfill that need.
Now available on Digital HD and on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™ & DVD July 26th
