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Lost City

What I liked: The opening scene was great. If you have ever wondered what watching a movie is like in my head, this is pretty much it. Where did the snakes come from? Are they your snakes? Who feeds them? I liked Harry Potter as the bad guy, the overly enthusiastic, billionaire, charcuterie loving bad guy. I liked the very intentional absurdity from the trainer, to the model's travel accessories, to the sequin jumpsuit, to the very excellent chair chase scene. This is the best chase scene where one of the characters does not leave their chair that you will see, unless Jackie Chan did one. Then that one is almost certainly better. I liked the surprising things that they did, they surprised me which I found impressive, especially in a movie like this that could have been extremely formulaic. I liked that they manage to stay just normal people (well a best selling romance author and her cover model) who are very very out of their depth for most of the movie and don't magically transform into action heroes. This explains in part why the managed to actually think that two people sharing a hammock was a good idea. Sharing a hammock always ends in disaster, take note. 

What I didn't: The last half hour. The very last chunk of the movie took a turn. For some reason they decided that the characters should actually learn things and have character arcs and stuff. Don't get me wrong, generally I'm in favor of things like having a plan that makes sense and well developed characters that grow and change. But in this context I felt like Obi Wan shouting "You have become the very thing you swore to [mock]." It's sad because they were so close. 

Who should watch this? People who like parodies. People wondering about alternative careers post graduate degree in ancient linguistics. People wondering what a truly impressive charcuterie spread looks like. People who wish to go adventuring in sequin jump suits. 

Would I watch it again? Yes. 

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