I went into this film feeling as though it was going to be goofy and to be honest it was goofy, that much was expected simply by seeing the trailer and the fact that Channing Tatum was in the cast. Any sort of action-adventure comedy film has potential though in my book especially when you introduce a couple of wild cards into the cast.
I feel as though Sandra Bullock is a really fantastic actress and she can make almost any type of film worth watching. Off the top of my head I can't really think of any super terrible films that she has been in although I did not watch Miss Congeniality or the sequel which won a Raspberry Award. She is very versatile and brings a certain something to every role that I don't think many other actresses could equal.
In this film she plays the role of romantic novelist named Loretta Sage who has kind of lost touch with her craft and her heart just isn't in it anymore. There are a lot of emotional reasons for this being the case that I will not spoil since it is kind of an important part of the plot and I think that people should watch this film.
Channing Tatum plays the role of her books' cover model and is named Alan Caprison. He is kind of like a "Fabio" in that the imagery on the books is ridiculous and even he knows this.
The two of them end up inadvertently going on an adventure on an island searching for some real-life treasure. This is meant to be funny because the topic of Loretta's books is normally exactly this sort of situation but she and Alan are not the adventurous type and are seriously out of their element when faced with a jungle or off-road environment.
The action is absurd and impractical but in a way it kind of reminded me of the type of stuff that we would see in the The Mummy but without the supernatural CGI stuff. This isn't as good as those films of course and I don't see this turning into a trilogy even thought it managed to make nearly $200 million at the box office which is probably good enough considering their $70 million budget.
The casting of Daniel Radcliffe as the main baddy is telegraphed and is also in the trailer so I don't consider writing this to be a spoiler. You would have figured it out really quickly anyway. He does a good job of not acting like Harry Potter, which is something that I would imagine he struggles with in his professional career. He certainly isn't a menacing physical presence but his portrayal as a rich guy with evil and sociopathic objectives is pulled off pretty well.
There is another cameo that I am not going to spoil because I don't think it appears in the trailer that you are absolutely going to love and for me and I think most people, it was kind of the highlight of the movie. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it.
Ok nevermind, he is in the trailer but trust me... you'll love it when you get to his part in the film.
Should I watch it?
For people that enjoy variety and don't need their films to be something that is going to be nominated for Academy Awards in order to enjoy them, I think this is a pretty fun ride. It is silly, it's stupid, and it is completely impractical that almost any of this could actually happen in real life... got it? This is not meant to be anything other than a silly, impossible ride. Because of the cast I am ok with this actually though. Had it been the usual suspects like the Rock and Kevin Hart I would have likely skipped this but since Hollywood threw us a curveball by putting two unlikely co-stars at the helm, it actually kind of works really well.
You definitely aren't going to hurt your brain trying to figure out what is going on in this one. In that regard it can be considered a bit of brainless fun.
I liked it and I think that most other people will as well. This is a Paramount film so you will not find it on Netflix. I'm sure you are clever enough to figure out other ways of obtaining it.
