‘The Lost City’ Review: Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum Are Cute Together in Guilty-Pleasure Treasure Movie

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticYou know studio movies are in a rut when, amid endless Spider-Bat sequels, you find yourself longing for the likes of such escapist 1980s offerings as “Romancing the Stone” and “King Solomon’s Mines.” I can’t be the only one who’s been craving a good old-fashioned treasure hunt, where the leads throw sparks and the ladies’ makeup never smudges, no matter how close to the volcano they get.

After a long stretch without such a big-screen Hollywood adventure movie (at least, not one without ties to a video game or theme park ride), “The Lost City” makes for welcome counter-programming.The story was producer Seth Gordon’s idea, but credit siblings Adam and Aaron Nee (who tested the waters with their Mark Twain-inspired “Band of Robbers”) for sprucing up the formula, while Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum supply the chemistry.

Bullock plays brainy romance novelist Loretta Sage, who’s lost her inspiration since the death of her husband, an archaeologist who might have been onto something.

Her once-scorching potboilers barely simmer these days, and she’s seriously thinking of killing off Dash, the long-haired, Fabio-looking lothario who graces the covers of all her books.