Review: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum chemistry palpable in 'The Lost City'

MANILA, Philippines — Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock is back on the big screen with Channing Tatum in the adventure movie “The Lost City.”

Directed by Adam Nee and Aaron Nee, from a screenplay by Oren Uziel and Dana Fox and Adam Nee & Aaron Nee, and story by Seth Gordon, “The Lost City” premiered in cinemas on April 20. 

It tells the story of brilliant, but reclusive author Loretta Sage (Sandra) has spent her career writing about exotic places in her popular romance-adventure novels featuring handsome cover model Alan (Channing Tatum), who has dedicated his life to embodying the hero character “Dash.” 

While on tour promoting her new book with Alan, Loretta is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe) who hopes that she can lead him to the ancient lost city’s treasure from her latest story. Wanting to prove that he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, Alan sets off to rescue her. Thrust into an epic jungle adventure, the unlikely pair will need to work together to survive the elements and find the ancient treasure before it’s lost forever.

Action-packed adventure

Sandra said that she has long been drawn to the idea of making an action-adventure film seasoned with comedy. After she was kidnapped, Channing will try to rescue her that leads to the actions scenes with lots of comedies. 

“We knew we were ambitious in what we were trying to pull off… but we also knew we HAD to pull it off. This film wouldn’t work if all the tones in it didn’t intersect seamlessly. The central characters are a shut-in author and a model, neither of whom should be in a jungle or even out in nature. Jungles eat people like them. They should remain in a hermetically sealed building with air conditioning,” Sandra said on making the film. 

The charm of Channing

The movie shows Channing’s body transformation as he is now again fit and toned. He recently gained unwanted weight but he looks good again in the movie. Sandra, who also produced the film, said Channing is the perfect actor to play Alan. 

“Channing is so self-deprecating; there’s nothing about him that’s ego driven, which works for the role of Alan because he is such an innocent. He is wide-eyed and sweet. Not many people can play that kind of a guileless, open person, but Channing had such comedic intuition about Alan,” Sandra said. 

Harry Potter is a villain

Boxed in his role as Harry Potter, this movie shows Daniel Radcliffe in a different role. He is so effective in being the villain. 

Related: Daniel Radcliffe: I’ve been happier since ‘Harry Potter’

Brad Pitt cameo

Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt is also part of the film. He, however, played a cameo role saving Sandra from his captors. With a limited time in the film, expect to be mesmerized by his charm and actions scenes.   

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