March 8, 2022 – This romantic adventure comedy has a plot somewhat similar to “Romancing the Stone” (1984) with similar emphases on comedy, treasure hunting, action and romance novelists. The film also has some similarities of old-fashioned jungle adventures that have always been popular with audiences, if not with overstarched critics.

Sandra Bullock (of “Gravity”) stars as reclusive romance author Loretta Sage who has had enough of publicity tours and the pretty boy romance cover model, Alan Caprison (played by Channing Tatum of “Magic Mike”). Alan (like Fabio Lanzoni) has spiced up the covers of all of her books. She resents the attention Alan gets on her publicity tours.

Loretta is kidnapped by a wealthy treasure seeker, Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe of the “Harry Potter” movies) who is looking for a legendary bejeweled crown called “The Crown of Fire.” He knows that Loretta has expertise in reading ancient languages, and he hopes she can decipher a fragment of ancient script that may pinpoint the location of the treasure.

When Loretta disappears, her publicity team, led by Beth Hatten (Da'Vine Joy Randolph of “Dolemite Is My Name”) and Alan, are able to determine Loretta's location by GPS. Beth hires a mercenary, Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt) to rescue her from the remote island where she is being held by Fairfax and his minions. Alan insists on going along with Trainer on the rescue mission.

As the rescue proceeds, it becomes clear that Alan desperately wants to be like Loretta's fictional hero, Dash McMahon, that Alan portrays as a cover model. Trainer, on the other hand, looks and acts just like Dash. It also becomes clear that Alan is in love with Loretta. Alan wants to rescue her and he wants to earn her respect. While his motives are laudable, his abilities appear to be inadequate for the task at hand.

The story then becomes a prolonged chase with Loretta and Alan trying to hide and run from Fairfax and his minions. Beth Hatten manages to book passage to the island with the aid of Oscar (played by Oscar Nuñez of “The Proposal”) a friendly, eccentric cargo pilot. Eventually, it all comes down to Fairfax, Loretta, Alan, the hidden treasure and an active volcano.

There are not many surprises in this movie, but it has engaging characters, humor and action, the basic ingredients needed for fun, adventure and entertainment. Bullock and Tatum make for an engaging pair. Radcliffe is effective as the obsessed villain, and Pitt, the straight man in this story, embodies an effective parody of action heroes often seen in modern movies.

I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. I thought I knew about how it would go, but there were a couple of surprises, and the movie was written better than I thought it would be, with a lot of funny references to other adventure movies. The movie is directed, and co-written by Aaron and Adam Nee. Other co-writers are Oren Uziel (“22 Jump Street”) and Dana Fox “Cruella”). This film rates a B.

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