In ‘The Lost City’, Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock’s Great Butt Try to Save Studio Comedy

As far as what happens in the movie, it’s fun to watch Channing Tatum standing naked on the riverbank like Sandra Bullock Sandra Bullock-y joked while picking up leeches from her bare ass.

It’s a bad time for the box office — for big studio comedies aimed at adults, for movies that aren’t based on comic book superheroes, and for “why don’t they? make movies like this?” movie. I’m not sure if Lost City will save all, or any, of those. But Channing Tatum’s ass and Sandra Bullock’s humor are strong arguments for why we should never let any of them die.

Lost City premieres Saturday at SXSW film festivalAustin personally presided over the proceedings for the first time since becoming one of the The first major casualty in the entertainment industry pandemic in March 2020. Bullock and co-star Daniel Radcliffe spoke to the crowd and acknowledged the poignant pleasures of being together in the cinema just for fun. And interestingly, nothing too much and certainly not least, which is exactly what the movie delivers.

If you’ve watched TV at any point in the past few months, have you seen a trailer or trailer for Lost City, this has clearly hit the devil’s bargain with every life in existence to make sure it plays at least once during every trade break. That’s actually a useful thing in this case. Have you seen the trailer yet? In essence, you know exactly what the movie is about. (And not just because the best scenes are pretty much spoiled in them.)

You can either don’t think too much and wallow in Bullock and Tatum of it all — each at the pinnacle of their kind, close to imitation here — or run away and let those who just want to see Sandra Bullock makes her Sandra Bullock while Channing Tatum continues to be our most relatable and self-aware movie star. There are simple pleasures in life, and sometimes that means eating some popcorn and hanging out when movie stars really allow themselves to be movie stars in a silly movie. .

Even though Lost City be the successor Romantic stone—Action-romances led by Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas, in which a romance novelist finds herself in the midst of a wild adventure straight out of her own writing — an homage important to it, a parody of it or a sketchy attempt to essentially remake it is up for debate. It will be an exhausting argument, an unimportant and possibly even unresolvable argument. The references (aka the whole plot) are there if you care about such things, and judging whether a movie is lazy or uninspired can depend on your investment. you into that conversation. But think too much about any of that and you rob yourself of some easy entertainment.

Bullock plays Loretta Sage, a former scholar who, upon the death of her Indiana Jones-esque husband, turns to writing romance novels. They are a disappointment, to her dismay and frustration.

When we met her in Lost Cityshe’s like a Nora Ephron-by-way-of-Nancy Meyers character in a 30 Rock parody the same movies. (Read: My ideal movie heroine. Perfect. No notes.)

She ignores voicemails from the publisher about her book tour, delays finishing her new book by soaking in the tub, drinking white wine with ice cubes, and spending time in the attic. write her beautifully decorated prose by talking to her deceased husband.

At this point, only Sandra Bullock can make these genre clichés grounded and clever, and uninhibited. And that’s exactly why you invited Sandra Bullock to make this movie. That’s why you get excited when Sandra Bullock did make this movie. That’s why you see a movie like this. It’s Sandra Bullock doing her Sandra Bullock thing in a big Sandra Bullock movie. What a treatment.

The cherry on it is Channing Tatum. He plays Alan, the cryptic cover model with Fabio hair who plays the hero “Dash” in all of Loretta’s novels, the lustful fantasy series intended for its target audience. The book is about “thirties women who wish they were in their twenties. ”

Loretta hates Alan. “He was always sparkling everywhere,” she said. “There’s never been an event where his shirt didn’t fly out.” What she didn’t bargain for was who played Alan, Mr. Tatum, perfected his art of comedy unlike any other spectacularly handsome ditz comedian of his generation. It’s futile to fight the adorable fear, especially when those abs are present.

This is said a lot about Bullock and Tatum’s appeal as movie stars — oh, they have great chemistry too — and not so much about plot. There are many reasons for that. The plot is pretty lame when really, the whole reason to watch it is to see the two leads getting goofy and wise and then vaguely sexy together. The plot also becomes clear and simple, but completely over-complicated and complicated, at the same time.

A bitter heir to the fortune with a chip on her shoulder, Abigail Fairfax (played by the cowardly and smug Daniel Radcliffe, who’s having an explosion) knows Loretta’s academic history and thinks she has it. able to help him find a hidden treasure in Lost City D, a real-life ancient location that she used as a mythological setting in her recent novel. So he kidnaps her.

Alan, who always wanted to impress Loretta but always ended up putting his foot in his mouth during their interaction, had accidentally seen this happen. He knows how to impress her now. He will save her.

This involved hiring a professional ripping artist played by Brad Pitt, the epitome of a perfect A-list cameo in a studio film and possibly the film’s bright spot. It also involved flying to a remote island, crossing the woods while arguing, joking around, and (obviously) falling in love with Loretta, and about four or five action movies and wall-speed stunts. techniques the film might need.

But between all we get is Tatum’s ass, some joking about the sparkly purple jumpsuit Bullock is forced to wear throughout the adventure, and the occasion to talk about Brad Pitt as handsome as how. Support from Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Oscar Nuñez, in turn, earned audiences a standing ovation for some of their best shots, also some of the most accessible, sampled comedic scenes. the lowest common number of the project. However, you enjoy it all.

All are comfortable. Is it high art? Is not. Does it elevate the genre? Probably not, but again, it’s a genre and flat film genre doesn’t exist anymore. This is a movie that knows what it is and who it is intended to entertain, and it certainly delivers.

It’s been almost 40 years since Romantic stone. When all that time has passed, the stone doesn’t even expect romance anymore. Happy to exist.