THE LOST CITY

Cert 12A

112 mins

BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence, brief bloody images, sex references, language

Note to self - stop watching trailers of movie comedies.

I doubt I would have been entranced by The Lost City anyway but I had already seen its best moments before immersing myself on an Air Canada flight.

Its promotion had been so heavy in cinemas earlier this year that the only way of avoiding the film's key moments would have been to have closed my eyes when Sandra Bullock appeared in her spangly purple all-in-one.

I wish I had - because what remained of Aaron and Adam Nee's picture after the trailer were very slim pickings.

Bullock plays a widowed author who has reluctantly found fortune writing action romance novels.

She would rather hide away from the public glare but her agent (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) insists on a new book, accompanied by a publicity tour.

She goes along with appearing with her cover model, the gorgeous but not-so-bright Dash, aka Alan (Channing Tatum).

But she is kidnapped by a wealthy businessman (Daniel Radcliffe) who has found The Lost City which she described in her novels (apparently, part of her fiction is actually fact).

Thus, the action transfers to the jungle where sequined Sandra is held captive by the least likely villain I can recall seeing at the movies.

Mind you, the miscasting doesn't end there. Muscled-up Tatum is really odd as the flouncy Alan who is trying to find his masculine side.

Meanwhile, Bullock is in her comfort zone, pushing the dial of Miss Congeniality only an edge or two.

Oh, and Brad Pitt appears as a mercenary who is hired to save her. A rather bizarre cameo.

I guess  that, despite the body count, it all amounts to fairly light-hearted family fun but I didn't buy into the mock-testy relationship between the writer and her cover model.

The film's storyline is desperately convoluted but I can't say for sure whether it would have made me laugh if I hadn't seen the gags so many times before.