Reclusive author Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) writes about exotic places in her popular adventure novels that feature a handsome cover model named Alan (Channing Tatum). While on tour promoting her new book, set up by her agent Beth (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), with Alan, Loretta gets kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire, Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe) who hopes she can lead him to an ancient city's lost treasure from her latest story. Determined to prove he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, Alan sets off to rescue. He remembers a friend that was an ex-SEAL, Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt) he met at a retreat, so Alan calls him for additional help.
Others to round out the cast are Oscar Munez as Oscar, Patti Harrison as Allison, Hector Anibal as Rafi, Thomas Forbes-Johnson as Julian, Bowen Yang as Ray the moderator, Joan Pringle as Nana and Slang as fantasy villain.
This was directed with such hilarity and detail by Aaron Nee ("The Last Romantic" '06, "Return" (documentary) '09, "Band of Robbers" '15) plus TV and shorts, and Adam Nee ("The Last Romantic" '06, "Band of Robbers" '15) plus TV and shorts. Even though these two filmmakers don't have a tremendous amount of feature film experience, this film was paced and staged well and showed how much they were able to extract the right amount of pathos and emotion from their actors so as to get them to emit what it took to convey a certain believability of the characters they were portraying. if you like the brand of directing by these two filmmakers, their "Masters of the Universe" is in preproduction at this time. It was creatively written by Oren Uziel, Dana Fox, Adam Nee and Aaron Nee, based on a story by Seth Gordon. In my experience, usually when a film has commissioned more than two writers to any film, it has the tendency to get bogged down and mired in confusion and choppiness--too many hands in the pot I guess, but considering that the majority of writing experience here is that of Uziel and Fox, then, I believe that the majority of the script was probably their work. Certainly Aaron Nee and Adam Nee were pivotal in their input, but it was more likely that the brunt of the writing was by Uziel and Fox. The visual effects predominantly created by Double Negative were seamless as they were effective and truly enhanced the film.
If you like the 'Indiana Jones' type of films you'll love this. It has it all: comedy, adventure, a tight script with a totally fun cast. This is the quintessential escape film with everything one is wanting to be able to go, to that fantastical place and time with some truly oddball characters in which to sink your teeth into. Grab the popcorn and enjoy this one!
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: PG-13 111mins.
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