Let’s face it: Most texts & posts that include “LOL” don’t actually make you laugh out loud.
But if anyone labels “The Lost City” with that abbreviation, they aren’t JK.
Folks in the theater were chortling and guffawing throughout this film — my wife and me just as loudly as the rest.
This entertaining new rom-com stars Sandra Bullock as romance novelist Loretta Sage, whose corny bestsellers all feature the same handsome hunk on their cover — a long-haired lover modeled by the somewhat dim-witted Alan Caprison (Channing Tatum).
Trouble is, in real life, neither the reclusive writer nor the preening poser are anything like their novelistic counterparts. That fictional pair, with the tongue-in-cheek names Angela Lovemore and Dash McMahon, have enjoyed a wild series of Indiana-Jones-style adventures — the latest of which involves the ancient “Lost City of D.”
But before Sage can embark on her new book tour, she’s kidnapped by a loony tycoon (Daniel Radcliffe) who believes this author can help him locate the actual ruins — together with a priceless artifact called the Crown of Fire.
Alan, thinking he must leap to the level of his literary lionheart, races to the rescue in the South Pacific — at which point, he and Sage wind up in the jungle with nothing but a knapsack, some massage oil, and a sequined purple jumpsuit, all the while pursued by the millionaire’s many henchmen.
Though Bullock has the goods for more serious roles in such films as “Gravity” and “Crash,” she’s always been great at the fish-out-of-water antics required here; and Tatum is amusing as the pampered but well-meaning modern male who is going to have to man up fast. In fact, the standard plot-arc in this type of tale will require them both to rise to occasion — and of course, to fall in love as well, but knowing this ahead of time doesn’t make it any less fun to watch.
The leads are beautifully supported by Brad Pitt as the sort of iconic tough guy he was born to play, by the divine Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Sage’s take-no-prisoners publicist; and an all-but-unrecognizable Oscar Nunez (“The Office”) as a kind-hearted jungle pilot. (Watch also for an early cameo from veteran Stephen Lang — here billed as “Slang”; don’t miss that closing-credit scene!)
Though “City” settles into action and romance toward the end, its first 90 minutes are uproarious, with dandy dialog in which Loretta and Alan struggle to process the mayhem — and hilarious action, including almost anything involving Pitt’s comical compact car.
With this and a few other touches, “City” deliberately invokes 1984’s terrific “Romancing the Stone,” starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. In fact, I couldn’t help wondering whether the producer of “Lost City” (Bullock) initially sought director Robert Zemeckis, for whom “Stone” jump-started an impressive career (“Back to the Future,” “Forrest Gump,” “Polar Express,” “Flight”). Helmed instead by brothers Aaron and Adam Nee, “City” isn’t quite as polished as that practically perfect 1984 adventure, but it sure is a hoot.
Perhaps it’s apt that the movie’s long-lost locale begins with the first two letters in LOL; or that its title can be shortened to “TLC.” In any case, it will almost have you ROTF.
And that’s not just IMO.
