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THE LOST CITY Cert 12A ★★★★ In cinemas now
channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock mine a long-buried metropolis for comedy, romance and rollicking action. And for those reared on never-ending superhero sagas, this star-led hybrid may feel like a relic from a bygone age.
Once a bank holiday staple, the action-romance went into sudden decline after Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz’s 2010 globe-trotting caper Knight And Day.
Thankfully, Hollywood has unearthed a great double-act for this entertaining throwback.
Five years after the death of her husband, grumpy academic-turned-romance-novelist Loretta Sage (Bullock) is promoting her latest page-turner The Lost City Of D with Alan (Tatum), the dim model who appears on the cover.
Following a disastrous Q&A session, Loretta is kidnapped by crazed English billionaire Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe). He thinks he’s unearthed Loretta’s real lost city on a remote island and needs her to translate a parchment detailing the location of a priceless necklace.
As she’s tied up and whisked away in a helicopter, Channing’s besotted idiot takes it upon himself to launch a rescue mission. After a brilliant tongue-in-cheek action scene and a wonderful Brad Pitt cameo, the film settles into screwball mode as spiky Loretta and eager Alan are lost in a jungle with Fairfax’s goons in hot pursuit. The lines could be sharper and the villain a lot scarier (Daniel Radcliffe summons up all the menace of a former boy wizard) but this is all about the bickering leads. Bullock is a hugely talented physical comic and Tatum has honed a winning himbo schtick. And, while we always know where the grumble in the jungle is heading, they have the chemistry to sell the romance.
The Lost City is instantly forgettable and wildly predictable but could be the slice of big-screen escapism we didn’t know we needed.
‘‘ Hollywood’s unearthed a great double act for this entertaining throwback