The Lost City (2022)
The adventure is real. The heroes are not.
You could be amazed that after seeing a trailer for a movie about a romance writer and model being on some shenanigan adventure in the jungle I thought “hey, this should be fun.” Whatever the pitch, the trailer reminded me of other movies I watched at one point or another that i had fun with - those adventure flicks of old that followed that Temple of Doom style. Well, you also know I’m usually one to not bother doing the reviews with the newer movies - on account of spoilers and all of that sort of thing. Well, today we’ll try something relatively new and tackle one of those new-fangled movies while it’s still fresh. Prep for comedy and bring some munchies, tonight we search for The Lost City.
Our story is pretty much exactly as it is on paper - which according to the trailer is one of those odd-couple adventure flicks. After watching it, it’s also a little bit Zoolander - so that might dress things up or down depending on your sense of humor. A romance novelist loses her husband, and is having some complications with writing because of it. On what could be her last book tour, she ends up being kidnapped by a man with his own problems who wants nothing more than to find a treasure that just so happens to be the subject treasure of the novelists romance book. Witnessing the kidnapping, her book cover model mounts a rescue operation, and it isn’t very long before shenanigans and adventure unfold. It works, even if you aren’t a fan of the humor in it the story itself still works, and although you could say that some of the events unfold in pretty lucky ways to progress things the motivation behind the characters is all there and keeps it feeling like some decent thought went into this plot.
The characters are the part that most the humor comes from. Although the main villain and the two leads have the most kind of character depth to them, and the story will have it’s own emotional anchors to play with. The characters aren’t unlikable - well, maybe the “young assistant” given her annoyance factor - in the long run, although the characters themselves can get a bit much at times depending on your threshold of humor. That earlier mention of Zoolander comes into play here - there’s a lot of air-headed bumbling in here played for laughs, and in turn I can see a person getting frustrated with characters because of it. That being said, I feel that most the time it does work, and it does make the more endearing moments of chemistry stand out that much better.
The actors nail it. There isn’t a moment you don’t think of them as exactly what they are supposed to be on the screen - with the exception again of the “young assistant” character, who I feel is less a flaw in the acting and more the writing for the character is meh and her acting to her fullest in the role doesn’t do the character any favors. It probably helps that the main batch is plenty of actors that have been around and showing their chops for a long while as well, but even plenty of the sub characters do a splendid comical job, and there’s even a few big namers who pop up for an impressively short amount of time. I can only imagine there was a ton of outtakes on this set given the number of times people are delivering what they are with straight faces, but goes to show you the fun of what some good actors can do.
Our heroes, such chemistry and pizazz.
Humor is as always, subjective. I had a good time with this, some decent chuckles but mileage will always vary based on the person. We get some slapstick and some low-hangers, some actual jokes and some character comedy (largely the dumb people style), and of course plenty of puns around the idea of the romance novel angle. So yes, you might not laugh at everything, but you will probably laugh at something. That said, if you found that kind of air-headed semi-unaware models humor from Zoolander good, you should enjoy a bunch more of the jokes than the random person might. Really though, some of these scenes are just wonderfully entertaining.
Some of the scenes even have action. That action, is actually quite good as well. You wouldn’t expect it in a comedy, but this stuff is quite easily follow-able, and looks nice and clear. Having said that I wouldn’t go as far as to say this is an action movie’s dream - it has some action in there to spice things up, but it’s far more into being an adventure flick with some romance undertones. When the action picks up, the effects to go with it are lovely and well done. Violence is in there, but it’s not overly detailed. Language is probably going to be the more offensive thing for that ilk - but that’s not even really all that bad. It’s no Wall Street level of F-bombs or anything of that sort. By all means, the 13 part of PG 13 rating will have heard worse going to school then in this movie.
Audio balance is great, and it’s all well done to boot. Plenty of sound effects to punch up scenes, be it ambient jungle or movement or the occasional explosion or punch. The line deliveries are also incredibly well done, which is helpful for the humor sections of things. The music also does a great job here, particularly with playing into not just the general emotional backbone of a scene like a soundtrack would normally do, but into amping up the comedy of a situation as well. Yes, I will admit that I don’t recall most the music after the movie is over in typical me fashion. That being said, I don’t think most people will find a lot to complain about in the audio department.
The enemies out on the prowl.
So whats the final verdict here? This is about as much fun as I had figured. It actually got a bit more deep in some of it’s plot lines than I would have anticipated even whilst watching the movie. Not that having a good moral backbone or making some observations about being alive is bad thing - you just really wouldn’t think of it surrounded by all the horny jokes and nonsense. It’s a fun enough flick that I think pretty well anyone could enjoy it, although I suppose some might want to peek at it before letting their younger types watch it - what with all the romance genre innuendos and the likes.