The Lost City Mines Ancient Gold

Can a fully dressed Sandra Bullock, and in one scene, a butt naked Channing Tatum make movie magic? They are banking on it, but we've seen this movie before. Many, many times actually. It's one part Indiana Jones / Raiders of the Lost Ark and one part Romancing the Stone. There's even shades of The Proposal. It's just not as clever even if Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter fame takes a very effective turn as the movie's bad guy. No worries, though. Sandra Bullock is still charming! Her physical comedy is in full Miss Congeniality form. And the movie has its moments of fun. The Lost City is a second rate film, but it's nice to see her back on the big screen. Is it worth your money? Only if you don't mind  the rehash of much better films that came before it.

Jungle Cruise Meets Pirates of the Caribbean

What do you get when you combine stars Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Paul Giamatti, with exotic locales, stylish graphics, and a storyline line that is based on Disneyland's iconic Jungle Cruise attraction? In this case, you get one giant, glitzy, mess of a movie that's not sure what it wants to be. Is it Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, or Romancing the Stone with shades of Avatar thrown in for good measure. It's all of the above. By the time the characters tell their backstory, any momentum and opportunity were lost. After Skippy's big monologue, I turned to my wife and said, "Do you even care anymore (about the characters and the story)"? We both laughed. I'm so glad we waited for it to appear on Disney+. 

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)