THE LOST CITY : Tuesday 7th June 2022

I saw the M Rated 'THE LOST CITY' at my local multiplex this week some seven weeks after its release date in Australia of 14th April. This American action adventure comedy film is Co-Written and Directed by Adam and Aaron Nee whose previous feature film credits take in their debut offering in 2006 with 'The Last Romantic' and 'Band of Robbers' in 2015. This film saw its World Premier at South by Southwest in mid-March before its cinema release Stateside at the end of March, having so far grossed US$186M off the back of a US$68M production budget and garnering mixed or average Reviews along the way.

Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock, who also Co-Produces here) is an acclaimed author who writes fictional romantic-adventure novels based around a heroine, Dr. Angela Lovemore (also played by Sandra Bullock), and her romantic interest, Dash McMahon (Channing Tatum). To promote the latest and twentieth book in the series, her publisher, Beth Hatten (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), insists that Loretta embark on a book tour with Alan Caprison (also played by Channing Tatum), the book's cover model for Dash, despite her reclusiveness since the death of her husband. Sage has grown tired of turning out 'schlock' novels featuring Lovemore and McMahon despite the obvious benefits that the trappings of her success has brought her, and so she decides it's time to kill off Dash. On the book tour, Dash is asked to remove his shirt by several women in the audience, much to Sage's chagrin, and needless to say their exploits onstage does not end well for either of them.

And so, following a less than successful start to their book tour Loretta is kidnapped by Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), a billionaire who has deduced that Loretta based her books on actual historic research conducted with her late archaeologist husband. He discovered a lost city on a remote island in the Atlantic and is convinced the 'Crown of Fire', a priceless crown of sixty encrusted red diamonds, is located there. When she declines to help decipher part of an ancient map believed to pinpoint the treasure, Fairfax, fearing an active volcano will destroy the site within days potentially, chloroforms and takes Loretta to the island aboard his private jet. 

Alan, who is secretly infatuated with Loretta, witnesses her kidnapping. He recruits Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt), a former Navy SEAL turned CIA operative and now a seemingly one man army for hire, whom he met at a mind and body retreat to connect with one's inner being, to meet him on the island and coordinate a rescue. Jack, with absolutely no help from Alan, breaches Fairfax's compound and overcome's many of Fairfax's henchmen singlehandedly in close quarter hand to hand combat, and frees Loretta, but is shot in the head before they can make it to the airport, forcing Loretta and Alan to flee into the jungle.

After leaving Alan where he fell, and fleeing in his Baja Qute car which ends up falling over a cliff, and then camping out in a hammock overnight, Loretta and Alan spend the next day fending off Fairfax's henchmen before reaching a nearby village, where Loretta calls Beth and leaves a message for her to tell her she's alive, and Alan dances with the locals. Upon hearing an old folk song from a local, Loretta deduces that the crown is hidden in a sinkhole somewhere in the jungle. Before they can leave however, Fairfax captures her again. Alan gives chase to save Loretta on a old motorcycle that he traded his wrist watch for, and catches them up. The pair then fight and struggle to gain the upper hand, before  being forced to share the treasure's location with Fairfax.

Upon reaching the location within the sinkhole, they discover the tomb is not a monument to Taha and Calaman's power, but a hiding place for the queen to grieve over her husband. Her Crown of Fire was made of red seashells gathered by him as a sign of his love for her. The actual treasure of the legend was not a priceless diamond encrusted jewel but the inseparable love between the king and his queen. Angered beyond belief, Fairfax forces Loretta and Alan into the tomb and closes it firmly shut as the volcano erupts, but Rafi (Hector Anibal), one of the henchmen and an island local, has a change of heart and leaves a crowbar to help them escape. Running ahead of Fairfax to escape the molten lava floe, Rafi abandons Fairfax on the island by heading off on his motor boat. Beth arrives with the local coast guard and rescues Loretta and Alan who swam underwater through a series of tunnels to safety, and Fairfax is duly arrested having been picked up looking lost and innocent. Loretta's next book, based on her adventure with Alan, is a hit, as they kiss at the end of their next book tour. 

Remain in your seat for a mid-credits sequence in which Jack, having survived the bullet to his head and having been presumed very dead, attends a yoga class with Loretta and Alan, surprising them both. 

'The Lost City' is almost an updated version of 1984's 'Romancing the Stone' with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito and so in that respect this film offers up nothing particularly new that we haven't seen before. However, that said, this film will be aimed at a whole new audience unfamiliar with that earlier film, and in that respect the chemistry that obviously exists between Bullock, Tatum, Radcliffe and Pitt (for the brief scenes that the latter plays out) helps elevate this feature above the also-rans. The script is a little thin on the ground, but the sense of humour and the quips often delivered in dead-pan fashion make up for this, while some of sweeping vistas of the Dominican Republic (where this movie was filmed) all add up to a film that is greater than the sum of its parts. Sure, its not going to reinvent the action adventure Rom-Com genre but it does at least provide a satisfying screwball comedy that reminds us why we go to the movies.

'The Lost City' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE GUILTY : Wednesday 6th October 2021.

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown now until the 11th October, and as a result all cinema's closed until this date, I've been reviewing recently some the latest feature films released onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own sofa at home this week is the American crime thriller 'THE GUILTY', Directed and Co-Produced by Antoine Fuqua, whose previous film making credits take in the likes of 'Training Day' in 2001 with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, 'Shooter' in 2007 with Mark Wahlberg, 'Olympus Has Fallen' in 2013 with Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart, 'The Equalizer' and 'The Equalizer 2' in 2014 and 2018 respectively both with Denzel Washington, 'Southpaw' in 2015 with Jake Gyllenhaal and 'Infinite' this year too with Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor. This film is based on the 2018 Danish film of the same name Directed and Co-Written by Gustav Moller who also serves as an Executive Producer here. It saw its World Premier screening at TIFF in mid-September this year, had a limited US theatrical release from 24th September and was then released onto Netflix on 1st October. It has garnered mostly positive Critical Reviews. 

Here then, Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is working the night shift at a 911 call centre, while he awaits to attend court the next day for an incident that occurred eight months ago while he was on duty patrolling the streets of Los Angeles with his partner. He has subsequently been demoted to the call centre pending the outcome of his court case. Out of control wild fires rage across large tracts of California and are steadily encroaching upon LA. We see Baylor fielding several calls, including a business executive, Matthew Fontenot (voiced by Paul Dano), stranded inside his rented BMW 7 series held captive by a pink haired voluptuous Hispanic prostitute; then from a crashed cyclist with a knee injury; then from a woman whose house is on fire; and a guy calling from a nightclub. 

In the meantime he takes an unexpected call on his mobile phone from a reporter from the Los Angeles Times wanting his side of the story in advance of his court appearance tomorrow, which he in no uncertain terms rebuffs. He also attempts to call his recently separated and soon to be ex-wife Jess (voiced by Gillian Zinser) wanting to say goodnight to his young daughter. 

He then answers a call from a young woman named Emily Lighton (voiced by Riley Keogh) who tells him in a high state of anxiety that she has been abducted. Baylor keeps her talking, making out that she is speaking with her young daughter, and learns that she and her abductor are traveling in a white van, but Emily is forced to hang up before she can provide more details. Baylor calls the California Highway Patrol (voiced by Da'Vine Joy Randolph) but they cannot locate the van because of the heavy smoke haze from approaching wild fires and the unknown license plate number. 

Desperate to get more information, Baylor calls Emily's home phone number and Abby answers, Emily's six year old daughter (voiced by Christiana Montoya) who is seemingly home alone with her younger brother Oliver who is sleeping. Abby is distraught telling Baylor that her Mum left them home alone after going off with their Dad, Henry. Abby provides Henry's mobile phone number from which he is able to look up the van licence plate number and get more details on Henry's record of assault and his time in prison. He relays the licence plate details to the CHP, and contacts his former Sergeant Bill Miller (voiced by Ethan Hawke) asking him to send a patrol car around to Emily's house and to check on Abby and Oliver.  He calls Henry (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard), threatens him and demands to know his intentions with Emily, but Henry hangs up on him. Baylor then calls his former partner Rick (voiced by Eli Goree) and asks that he visits Henry's house to gather whatever clues he can as to where Henry may be taking Emily. On that phone call, at 2:00am in the morning, Rick expresses concern to Baylor about the testimony he is to give at tomorrows court hearing.

Baylor takes a call from Abby in a panic when two LAPD officers arrive at the door, and he tells her to let them in. Over the phone, he overhears that the officers notice blood on Abby's hands and nightdress and find Oliver in the bedroom seemingly dead. Joe calls Emily back and tells her to pull the handbrake, which she does, but it fails to crash the van. Henry puts Emily into the back of the van. When Henry stops the van and tries to remove Emily from the back, she hits him with a brick and flees.

In the meantime, Rick has gained entry into Henry's house and finds documents from a psychiatric treatment facility where Emily had been a patient. Joe calls back Henry, who explains he was taking Emily back to the facility and that she had been off her meds for a few weeks because they couldn't afford them and, during a psychotic episode, unintentionally hurt Oliver. Henry says he did not report the incident to the authorities because he wanted to protect Emily and has no faith in the 'system'.

Emily calls Baylor back from somewhere on the freeway, implying that she is preparing to commit suicide by jumping off an overpass because she believed Oliver had 'snakes in his stomach' and that she 'took them out'. Joe directs the CHP to her location while attempting to talk her down. He attempts to distract her and keep her talking by revealing that he killed a 19-year-old boy while on duty because he was angry and wanted to punish him for hurting someone. He pleads with Emily that Abby loves and needs her and that he promised Abby that she would come home. Over the phone, Baylor hears patrol cars and officers arrive, as the line is cut off.

Soon afterwards the CHP calls Baylor to inform him that they got Emily down safely, and Sergeant Denise Wade (Christina Vidal) sticks her head around the door to advise that Oliver is alive and in the Intensive Care Unit. As she leaves she says to Baylor 'broken people help broken people, as a back handed compliment. A short time later, in the mens room, a distraught Baylor vomits before calling Rick and tells him to tell the truth at the hearing. Rick says he can't and if he does it will be years before he sees his daughter again. Sobbing, Baylor tells Rick again what he must do at the hearing. He then calls the LA Times reporter to tell her that he intends to plead guilty at the trial. News reports after the hearing indicate that Baylor is only the fourth Police Officer to be sentenced to prison for manslaughter. 

I never did see the original Danish film from 2018 of which this is a Hollywood remake, and as such I can't draw any comparisons between the two. Suffice to say, this taught, tense and emotional drama which takes place over a single night shift in a sparsely manned Police call centre, maintained my interest throughout, and while Gyllenhaal is in just about every frame for its ninety minute running time, he inhibits the role of fractured Joe Baylor, puts in a very convincing and powerful performance and proves his worth again as one of the finest Actors of his generation. Shot within the confines of two rooms, over the course of just eleven days and in the middle of a pandemic Antoine Fuqua has proven here too his ability to make a lot out of a little particularly when you have an Actor of Gyllenhaal's stature doing the heavy lifting supported by the equally convincing voice of Riley Keogh on the other end of the phone. If you haven't seen the original, then you could do worse than hunt this remake out as it will keep you on the edge of your seat from the get go.

'The Guilty' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-