Pitt's hilarious ex-Navy SEAL can't save Bullock's anemic action comedy 'Lost City'
“The Lost City” - ★ ★
In the squelched action comedy “The Lost City,” Channing Tatum has fun as an inept, panicky wannabe hero, scurrying about and revealing more than we glimpsed in his stripper movie “Magic Mike.”
He plays Alan, a hunk of dimwitted eye candy hired to be the book cover model for Dash, the hero in popular archaeological romance novels penned by Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock).
In the inspired opening, Loretta writes, deletes and rewrites on her computer as we see her characters disappear, reappear, repeat and change dialogue, and do whatever she types.
How will Loretta use her writer's imagination to deal with dangers later in the movie?
She doesn't.
Four credited writers (two are sibling co-directors Adam Nee and Aaron Nee) drop both the inspirational ball and this intriguing premise, relegating “The Lost City” to a conventional “Romancing the Stone” knock-off capped by a stupefying post-credits segment that undermines what little narrative integrity this film manages to muster.
A nutty billionaire named Abigail Fairfax (a tepid Daniel Radcliffe, radiating low-wattage villainy), kidnaps Loretta, and whisks her off to a tropical island he recently purchased.
Fairfax thinks that Loretta's archaeological knowledge can help him find the Crown of Fire, an ancient diamond headdress.
At the behest of Fairfax, Brad Pitt's ex-Navy SEAL Jack Trainer, a one-man Dirty Dozen with a particular set of skills (mainly stealing scenes) arrives to save the day, and almost this movie.
Pitt's willingness to poke fun at his macho persona - which he accomplishes by playing his ridiculously cool character absolutely straight - elevates the first half of this adventure.
Like the recent release “Uncharted,” “Lost City” boasts a suspenseless lost relic plot populated by characters with fizzling chemistry.
Nonetheless, “The Lost City” supplies a sufficient amount of escapist nonsense not dependent on internal logic, snappy screwball comedy dialogue or consistency.
Loretta barely squeezes through a tiny cave to find the Lost City. So how does Alan, twice her size, suddenly appear with her? Maybe it's magic.
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Brad Pitt
Directed by: Adam Nee and Aaron Nee
Other: A Paramount Pictures release. In theaters. Rated PG-13 for bloody images, language, nudity, suggestive material, violence. 112 minutes