Starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Brad Pitt, Da’Vine Joy Randolph

Directed by: Adam Nee and Aaron Nee

Paramount Home Entertainment, available to Download & Keep and on 4K UHD™, Blu-ray™ & DVD

A reclusive author struggles with the expectations of her publisher in promoting her latest bonkbuster novel, but when an eccentric millionaire offers her a chance at a real life adventure, her life gets even more complicated.

There’s more than a whiff of Romancing the Stone about this latest offering from Paramount Pictures, but whereas this could have been another lazy remake which tickled familiar tropes to milk the nostalgia ducts, instead it’s a smart, surprisingly layered and genuinely laugh out loud good time.

Bullock is reliable as always in playing a comedic character with an appropriate amount of heart. In this case, her character Loretta Sage, a romance novelist who writes a series of self-insert adventures about an archaeologist and her handsome companion, has become somewhat of a recluse from the world after the death of her husband some years previously. Where a weaker film may have played Sage’s awkwardness for cheap laughs, here it feels rather more genuine in its pathos. Sage speaks to her character’s handsome sidekick (portrayed by Tatum) as she writes, avoids speaking to her agent or pretty much anyone, and is reluctantly dragged into a promotional tour for her latest novel which goes against everything she wants. As she’s bundled unceremoniously onto the stage in a sequined jumpsuit, it’s impossible not to sympathise with her rather than laugh at her, even though you’ll laugh at how the film uses the moment. It’s a fine line, and one the movie treads beautifully throughout, never once feeling like it’s punching down at the themes of trauma or mental health which form part of its central character.

Tatum, who I might unfairly have expected to compare unfavourably to an industry veteran like Bullock, positively shines in his role as Alan Caprison, the cover model who has been used to portray Loretta’s fictional hero Dash McMahon and who seems at first to almost genuinely believe that he is the guy he ‘plays’. Quickly the film reveals a whole other side to the character, aided by Tatum’s absolutely committed performance which puts him squarely in the Chris Hemsworth school of extremely handsome muscular male leads with perfect comedic timing and an easiness in laughing at themselves. Caprison starts out seeming to be a typical shallow idiot, but develops into an endearingly daft individual, with a heart of gold and emotional honesty and courage which outweighs his lack of intellect. When Sage declares herself a Sapiosexual, you pause for a moment wondering how this fairly typical looking romcom is going to get to the rom part, and happily the path it chooses is every bit as nuanced and satisfying as the characters themselves.

Hamming things up delightfully is Daniel Radcliffe as eccentric billionaire Abigail Fairfax while Brad Pitt smoulders as former Navy Seal turned CIA Operative Jack Trainer. Radcliffe is clearly having immense fun as the bad guy, playing Fairfax with a twitchy, all too believable energy which belies the whacky nature of the premise. Out-inherited by his younger brother, Fairfax is on a quest to find the treasure hidden at the centre of the titular Lost City, the legendary ‘Crown of Fire’, and is convinced having read one of Sage’s books that she is the key to its location. This is where the film could trip itself, as it reveals Sage to have been a talented archaeologist with a gift for dead languages who used to go on adventures with her late husband before becoming a romance author. In fact, thanks to Bullock’s sensitivity and the writers’ nice balancing of tone, it works. When Fairfax kidnaps Sage, it’s equal parts fun and creepy, and that energy is maintained by Radcliffe throughout the film’s run time.

Pitt on the other hand is a rugged, real-life version of McMahon which Caprison can’t hope to keep up pace with. A literal one-man army who is hired by Caprison and Sage’s agent Beth to find Sage, Trainer is a ludicrously over-powered character who is given life by Pitt’s wonderfully understated performance. You genuinely won’t see where the film is going with him, like so many other things, and when it gets there, it really helps to propel the film into its second act.

At just under 2 hours, it’s long for a romcom but pleasingly short for an action adventure, and it whips along at a great pace without ever outstaying its welcome. Randolph’s Beth ends up basically on her own parallel story throughout the movie, on her own separate quest to track down Sage, but the energy she brings, hot off the heels of Only Murders in the Building as Detective Williams, means that you won’t ever mind or feel like her arc is distracting from the main story, rather serving as smart little breaks from the action.

Most of all, what you’ll take from it is humour. The gags come thick and fast and they all land – the screening I was in had the whole audience laughing uproariously for its entire run time – but it also has that heart to it which means, even if it is a little sappy and cliché in its sentimentality, you feel the genuine chemistry between the leads and you root for them in a way the film does not prepare you for when they first meet.

The transfer to home cinema doesn’t detract from the movie’s fun – the 4K edition brings out the vivid colours of the director’s palette. While there’s no commentary, we do get assorted featurettes (even the jumpsuit gets its own moment in the spotlight) as well as 9 minutes or so of deleted scenes, and some enjoyable bloopers, which are worth watching straight after the featurette on the “dynamic duo” of Bullock and Tatum.

Verdict: Fun, frantic and surprisingly earnest. 9/10

Greg D. Smith

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