Every once in a while, Hollywood remembers that people tend to like romantic adventures suffused with comedy. Romancing the Stone set the contemporary standard back in 1984, though one might argue Raiders of the Lost Ark started the trend in 1981. Still, it’s been a while since a major studio went all in on this subgenre, making 2022’s The Lost City somewhat of an anomaly. While it’s certainly exciting to see this kind of film back on the screen, it would’ve been nice if the end product was a bit more memorable. Still, The Lost City is a highly entertaining watch, even if the destination might not justify the journey.

Although I’m not an avid reader, I’m quite aware of the content that one finds in women’s romantic novels, which definitely gave me a greater appreciation of the framework of The Lost City’s plot. When romance novelist Dr. Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) is kidnapped by an indignant billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe), her doltish cover model, Alan (Channing Tatum), sets out to rescue her. The billionaire, Abigail Fairfax, believes he’s close to finding a priceless artifact, but he needs Loretta and her knowledge of a forgotten language to finish the job. Meanwhile, Alan recruits a Navy SEAL acquaintance, Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt), to help, and the two make their way to the remote island in the Atlantic that Loretta’s been taken to. Ultimately, Alan desperately hopes he’ll be able to prove himself to Loretta, who he’s besotted with, by saving the day.

It didn’t take me long to pick up on this movie’s primary strategy, which is to inundate its viewers with as many jokes per minute as it can. At least, that’s the apparent strategy in the first half of the film that writers Adam Nee, Aaron Nee, Oren Uziel, and Dana Fox utilized. In the early going, I strongly felt that The Lost City was leaning too heavily on humor and not enough on characterization and suspense. Don’t get me wrong, watching Sandra Bullock struggle to mount a stool in a tight sequin dress is hilarious. Channing Tatum is similarly amusing, even if it’s clear he’s just retooling his 21 Jump Street schtick. Even so, there’s simply too much comedy, so much so that nobody seems like an actual human in the first act.

Thankfully, it’s not long until Brad Pitt shows up, providing a competent foil to Tatum’s halfwit. While Pitt’s role is nothing more than an extended cameo, his performance noticeably helps the movie find its groove. His chemistry with Tatum and Bullock is off the charts, so much so that it almost overshadows Tatum and Bullock’s chemistry, which is good but not electric. Jack Trainer is a truly superb character for an adventure movie, and by the time he shuffles off to allow the two leads to shine, The Lost City starts to transition into something more charming.

At the end of the day, what most viewers want from a romantic adventure is an arduous journey through an exotic location that brings our protagonists together. For the most part, The Lost City offers just that in acts two and three. Showcasing decent on-screen chemistry, Bullock and Tatum’s characters go through a humorous and believable process that takes them from working poorly as a team to becoming an inseparable pairing. In a vulgar scene early in this process, Alan and Loretta wade through a stream, leading to a nauseated Alan begging a disgusted Loretta to peel leeches off his backside. But then, in a later sequence, a newly emboldened Alan, who’s no longer so easily panicked, chases after an armored vehicle that Loretta is in. This all leads to an Indiana Jones-esque action scene that showcases Alan’s physicality and Loretta’s ingenuity. Sequences like these, sandwiched between passable bits of romance, are when this movie is at its best.

Other than an over-reliance on hit-or-miss humor, there are two other flaws that prevent The Lost City from being as good as it could be. The first is that it lacks a compelling villain. Daniel Radcliffe is fine as Fairfax, but he’s almost literally playing the same character he did in Now You See Me 2. This is lighthearted flick, so it didn’t need a vicious baddie or anything, but someone a bit more dangerous and nuanced would’ve been better. The second flaw is its overall approach to Tatum’s character. Alan is shown to be incredibly dense for a majority of the runtime, until all of a sudden, he isn’t. One second, he’s unreliably stupid; the next, he’s reliably bright. Again, I know this is a lighthearted comedy, but that fact didn’t make this any less jarring to me. If only Alan had shown some flashes of wit early on, I wouldn’t have complained. That said, this is not a knock on Tatum, who was enjoyable throughout.

All in all, The Lost City is a completely adequate entry to the rom-com adventure subgenre. With its clever romance-novel framework, it offers up enough comedy, action, and intimacy for a wide range of viewers. However, an overabundance of jokes and notable examples of poor characterization keep it from standing out from its genre counterparts. While I’m certainly happy that Hollywood finally made another movie like this, I don’t think I’m going to think about it much after I finish this review. There may be a few treasures dotted throughout The Lost City, but given this adventure lasts 112 minutes, I’m not entirely sure it’s worth the journey.

If I had to score it, I’d give The Lost City a 6/10.