Lost City, The

Stars: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Brad Pitt, Oscar Nunez, Patti Harrison, Hector Anibal

Director: Aaron & Adam Nee

If you fancy a lite, lite version of Romancing the Stone (which itself wasn't that heavy), these jungle jinks could entertain you right well for a couple of hours.

It's utter balderdash, of course, and pretty icky at times, but fans of the stars will probably be happy to go with the flow, and there's an amusing cameo from Pitt that ends all too soon.

Bullock, unchanging despite advancing years, is Loretta, the best-selling author of romantic adventures in exotic settings, buoyed by model Alan (Tatum), who plays Dash, the hunky hero of the books on all their dust-jackets.

So Alan, in his Dash guise, accompanies her to the preview of her latest novel, which goes disastrously, to the horror of her indefatigable, larger-then-life agent (Randolph). Worse is to follow when Loretta is kidnapped by batty billionaire Fairfax (a wildly miscast Radcliffe who gives it his all and then some) who believes Loretta is the key to finding a lost tomb on an Atlantic Island which contains 'a crown of fire in its cascade of diamonds'.

Still wearing the sparkly ruby-red jumpsuit and steeple heels she was forced to squeeze into for the preview, Loretta finds herself transported by private jet to said Atlantic island where forest frolics ensue.

Alan, whose real personality is more sheepish than swaggering, hires mercenary adventurer Jack (Pitt) to ride to the rescue, while the agent is also on Loretta's trail.

Pursuits are, well, pursued, to a predictable ending (albeit with a bit of a twist). The whole thing just about passes muster in today's effects-driven cinema, although it does have its moments, notably a motor-cycle chase, Bullock peeling leeches off Tatum's back and bottom - 'like peeling anchovies off my potato salad' - and a dance sequence where the couple fall in love that rivals a similar scene in The Sound of Music for close contact chemistry.

There is a brief scene after the main credits.

David Quinlan

USA/Dominican Republic 2022. UK Distributor: Paramount. Colour by Company 3.
112 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 14 Apr 2022