What I’m watching: a Sandra Bullock film that seems just too familiarDate: 6/6/2022 Streaming: “The Lost City”
Right up front I will admit to having a crush on Sandra Bullock. I’ve been known to say that I would watch her read the telephone book – please explain to younger readers what a telephone book is.
I was sorry that I didn’t wind up seeing her newest film, “The Lost City” in theaters, but Paramount+ is now streaming the film.
Bullock plays a romance novelist, Loretta Sage, who is kidnapped by millionaire Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), who knows that before she wrote best-selling romances, she studied ancient history with her late husband. Fairfax believes she is the only person to be able to translate the language of a lost race of an island in the Caribbean and find the tomb of a ruler that contained a crown of blood red diamonds.
Once Sage is determined to be missing, the male model who has adorned the covers of her books decides he is going to rescue her. As played by Channing Tatum, Alan is well-intentioned but a tad clueless.
Alan manages to find Sage and they escape into the jungle.
There are moments when the film is funny, and Bullock knows how to play a character who is trying to cope with loss – she still is mourning her husband – as well as being effective in blending drama with often broad comedy.
The problem for me is about halfway through the film I realized that some of it seems a little familiar. I realized the romance novelist who lives in an emotional bubble of her own creation and who is forced to survive an adventure in a jungle is not unlike the 1984 film “Romancing the Stone.”
While there are certainly differences to the plot, the general themes are very similar, which, frankly, surprised me.
The performances are solid, with Tatum showing he knows how to play eye candy who evolves into someone more substantial, and Radcliffe showing his ability to portray a wild-eyed madman. Bullock is charming, as always.
The film has adventure, comedy and ultimately romance, but there is something missing. Perhaps it’s the fact that it made me feel I had seen this film before, and in a way I did.
On DVD: “Scared to Death”
I went to The Archive last week in Bridgeport, CT, the “factory outlet” for Vinegar Syndrome, the company that restores often obscure films and a picked up one of the new releases, “Scared to Death.”
This is not the 1947 murder mystery with Bela Lugosi, but the 1981 science fiction horror film.
This is the first feature film from writer and director William Malone, who is best known for his remakes of “The House on Haunted Hill.”
“Scared to Death” is a surprisingly well-done low budget monster movie, but what really impressed me was the lengthy documentary that details how the film was made.
These packages of a movie with extras provide a film school for folks dreaming of making their own movies. They are very instructive.
Keep them coming, Vinegar Syndrome.
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