Original action-adventure comedies are proving harder to come by on the big screen these days. Granted, some superhero movies manage to capture the charms of the genre, but there’s nothing like watching a normal person suddenly find themselves in a deeply strange situation. The Lost City, which follows a writer of paperback fiction fantasies after she is kidnapped, is precisely the kind of fun that many people look for on a quiet weekend in early Spring.
The Lost City is unlikely to win any critics’ prizes at the end of the year, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its origins in a well-worn genre. Action comedies set in the jungle are a part of Hollywood’s history, and these are the five entries in that genre that pre-date The Lost City and offer the same mixture of comedy, action, and romance that make the Sandra Bullock/Channing Tatum movie so appealing.
