The Lost City is a 2022 American action-adventure film directed by The Nee Brothers and starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Brad Pitt.
Loretta Sage is a moody middle-aged author who writes romance-adventure novels centered around a fictional hero named Dash McMahon, who is played by cover model Alan Caprison. Her publisher, Beth, insists that she must go on a book tour with Alan as an effort to soften Loretta of her secludedness.
After a messy start, mostly because of the popularity of Alan’s Dash image, Loretta is met by the outlandish billionaire Abigail Fairfax. Fairfax realizes that Loretta has based her books on actual historic research she did with her dead archaeologist husband. Fairfax has found a lost city on a remote island and is convinced that this is the location of ‘The Crown of Fire,’ a priceless treasure. When Loretta refuses to help decode an ancient map to the treasure, Fairfax who is scared the location will be destroyed by an an active valcano, kidnaps Loretta and takes her to the island. Alan, who is secretly crushing on Loretta, witnesses her kidnapping. He gets Jack Trainer, an ex-Navy SEAL turned CIA operative, to meet him at the island and map out a rescue mission. Beth finds out about Loretta’s abduction and also goes to the island to try to save her.
This is not just an action-adventure film, it is also a screwball romantic-comedy film. It doesn’t shine like so many classic treasure hunting or comedy movies, but the cast makes it very entertaining. Not once is this film boring. Lots of the humor is cheesy and awkward, but that just makes this movie more enjoyable. You find yourself laughing out loud at many times throughout the production.
You have an all-star cast, but this is far from their best work, which is probably one of the points of the movie and that does make it more humorous. It does prove that they are versatile actors and can do both serious and comedic roles. The acting is great. The storyline is beyond silly, but that’s the main point of the film. The soundtrack is perfect, except for Pat Benatar’s “Shadows of the Night,” which is about questioning how strong a relationship is, but some people don’t care about song meanings. The scenery of the Domenican Republic is absoutely breathtaking.
Some scenes can be hard to hard to watch for those with claustrophobia and there is a bit of violence and foul language, but nothing over the top. The plot of of this film is a lot like Romancing the Stone, but worse, in fact, it’s more like a parody of the movie. It won’t be winning any awards Lost City, but it is wildly entertaining. It’s not a movie that I was dying to see, but it is worth a watch for the cast, humor and scenery.
Overall, a very funny movie and I like the story with a story type plot. The film could’ve been less cheesy and awkward and less time could’ve been spent on trying to decipher the map’s code. In general, this is a very enjoyable film. It’s not awful, but far from being fantastic. It’s a good movie to see on a date or with friends. Would I watch it again? Probably not, unless it came on TV and there was nothing else on. 13+ 3.5/5
Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg based on Peter Benchley’s 1975 novel of the same name. It stars Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Murray Hamilton and Lorraine Gary. It follows the story of a man eating great white shark attacking beachgoers at a summer resort town, coaxing police chief Martin Brody (Scheider) to hunt it down with the help of a marine biologist (Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter (Shaw). Murray Hamilton plays the mayor and Lorraine Gary plays Martin’s wife.
This film has the feel of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, which Spielberg was going for. For the time period of this film’s release it was considered revolutionary in film-making and many still regard it as that, although some viewers have or do point out the “fakenes” of the effects particularly of the shark. Yes, at times, you can tell the shark is fake and a few times that the attacks are fake as well. But the film was still ahead of it’s time and still just as scary today as it was then.
This film is beyond shocking and nail-biting no matter how many times you watch it. It is also extremely gory, so not good for children under the age of ten. The intensity of this movie makes it both exciting and frightening. Despite what some call “fake” about this film, it is still very well done and makes you not want to get in the ocean, not to surf, swim, or go out on a boat, so don’t watch this before going to the beach or on a cruise.
Roy Scheider is outstanding as police chief Martin Brody, although the character could’ve drank, smoked and cursed less, especially around his kids. Murray Hamilton is equally great as the mayor of Amity Island, so is Richard Dreyfuss as Martin Hooper the marine biologist. Robert Shaw does a fine job as Quint the shark hunter and Lorraine Gary is good, not great as Ellen Brody.
Somehow a fake giant shark killing beachgoers fell into place, because this film brings an astonishingly effective shock factor and is legendary for that. It is so brilliantly executed that it deserves it own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is one that any film lover must see to believe. There is not one bad moment, not one boring scene. It sends you on a terrifying ride throughout, sends your heart racing the moment you hear the famous music, that has become synonymous with sharks. It is one of Spielberg’s finest films. A true masterpiece, so don’t let the nit-picky critical reviews turn you off of watching this.
This like I said is not for young kids, it is violent to the max, lots of smoking and drinking and quite a bit of cursing. Also, if you don’t like lots of gore, this may not be for you. 13+ 4.5/5
