THE LOST CITY (2022)
An exceptionally fun adventure where love matters more than treasure.
Should You Watch It?
The Lost City is an exceptionally entertaining action comedy. It has strong production values, beautiful settings, sturdy plot points, fun twists, and excellent comic timing from Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. Its emotional center is worthwhile, too: love matters more than material possessions, people should not be judged by appearances, and grief should be faced rather than avoided.
That good material comes with a real cost. The movie includes many sexual and off-color innuendoes, several obscenities, a few strong profanities, comic violence, New Age references, and politically correct dialogue. The positive message is genuine, but the content makes this unsuitable for children and young teens.
If you are an adult or mature older teenager who can exercise discernment about those elements, this is worth seeing; otherwise, choose something cleaner for family movie night.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESLoretta Sage is an academic turned romance novelist whose latest book sends her on a publicity tour. When a wealthy man kidnaps her, he reveals that her knowledge of ancient languages may help him locate a priceless headdress hidden in a lost city on a lost island.
Alan, the cover model for Loretta’s book, tries to rescue her. Soon, the novelist and her fictional hero’s real-life counterpart are caught in an adventure involving lost treasure, dangerous villains, and unexpected companionship.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is an exceptional action comedy, and the source review’s praise is well earned. The script is strong, the production values are stellar, and the beautiful setting gives the adventure an appealing sense of scale.
Bullock and Tatum have great comic timing and handle the dramatic and romantic moments well. Physical comedy, sturdy plot points, and enough twists to keep viewers engaged round out a polished, highly entertaining film.
The Worldview
The film’s strongest idea is that love is worth more than material possessions. It also values truth, forgiveness, apologizing, rescuing people we care about, and refusing to judge someone by a book’s cover. Its treatment of grief encourages facing loss in a positive way instead of running from it.
Those redemptive elements are mixed with objectionable material. The film includes immoral pagan behavior, a meditation conference called “Touching Your Inner Self,” and a reference to New Age healing. It also contains politically correct feminist and environmentalist comments, including dialogue about gender-neutral naming, plastic-bottle reuse, feminism, and Gloria Steinem. A major supporting character is a retired Navy SEAL.
The movie’s central longing is for love that outlasts wealth and appearances. Scripture gives that desire its proper center: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong moral worldview with some redemptive content includes a powerful message about love being greater than material possessions, truth exposes the villain, a character says someone is an angel, and the person says, “How did you know,” and movie stresses the need not to judge a book by its cover, dealing with grief in a positive manner, rescuing someone about whom you care, and stresses the need for forgiveness and saying you’re sorry, mitigated by objectionable elements such as immoral pagan behavior, New Age elements such as heroine meets man at a meditation conference titled “Touching Your Inner Self” and a reference about doing New Age healing, and some politically correct dialogue such as a male character named Abigail stresses that his name is gender neutral, lead male character is sad he has to use a plastic bottle instead of a glass one, but that it will be reused, man and woman argue about how to evade villains with strategy, and man says he’s a feminist and mentions Gloria Steinem, plus major supporting character is a retired Navy Seal
Foul Language
Seven obscenities (two “s” words and four a** words plus an obscene word for male genitalia), three Jesus profanities, and 18 light profanities (mostly OMGs, but also one “Holy Mother of God), the title of a romance novel is an innuendo for male genitalia, there’s a comment about a woman urinating in a river, characters describe a tunnel as an anus, and there’s a mention of bat guano
Violence
Strong and light violence includes a woman kicks a trash can out of anger, woman mentions that in college her friend was found dead in a car but doesn’t say how she died, henchmen chloroform a character they kidnap, multiple explosions, a volcano erupts, villains shoot at the lead characters trying to escape their grasp, characters choked until they become unconscious, leeches depicted on a character, a few characters fall to their deaths, man’s crotch lit on fire, man killed and blood splatter depicted for comical effect, character jokes that he can taste his brains and thoughts, and multiple instances of hand to hand combat with headbutts and glass bottles used as weapons
Sex
Lots of mostly light sexual innuendoes includes a suggestive book cover of a romance novel, a male model is encouraged to take his shirt off during press interview, and a character tries to help him do so but it fails, woman says she’s attracted to intelligence, many innuendoes about male private parts, a character makes a comment about TAKEN and “weird sex stuff” while evading the bad guys, mention of a pelvic exercise, woman jokes that she’s not asking a man to procreate with water but just asking him to swim, man hoists a woman up a cliff, and she mentions that his head is close to her private parts, woman uses sexual innuendo to describe sitting by the fire with a man and another time by the beach (for example, she mentions hot lava “pulsing”), and woman and man sleep together in the same hammock for warmth, but nothing sexual happens
Nudity
Upper male nudity in multiple scenes, rear male nudity in one scene, and it’s implied woman sees his private parts shortly after, and a character mentions that history had a lot of nudity
Alcohol Use
Character has wine over ice, champagne depicted in another scene, villain drinks whiskey, mention of wanting wine to relax in another scene
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Some cigar smoking, but no drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Character calls an elderly woman a slut, kidnapping, greed, and deceit, but the truth comes out eventually.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film values love over material possessions. What does Jesus say about storing up treasure, and what competes for first place in your heart?
Matthew 6:19–21Loretta’s grief affects how she approaches life. How can facing grief honestly become part of healing rather than something we continually avoid?
Psalm 34:18 · 2 Corinthians 1:3–4The story challenges people not to judge a book by its cover. Where does Scripture call us to look beyond appearances?
1 Samuel 16:7 · James 2:1–4The film includes forgiveness and saying you’re sorry as part of its moral vision. What makes an apology honest, and how does forgiveness reflect God’s mercy?
Ephesians 4:32 · Colossians 3:13The Final Word
The Lost City delivers exceptional action-comedy entertainment and a meaningful message about love, grief, and forgiveness. But its sexual humor, profanity, violence, New Age references, and politically correct dialogue make it a movie for discerning adults and mature older teenagers—not children or young teens. Our answer is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For a cleaner family choice, see.
