Top of the Charts

I didn't have much hope for Uncharted (2022). It looked pretty stupid. It was and we loved it.

It starts with Tom Holland falling out of a plane. I guess this comes from the computer game the movie is based on. Then we get the back story. Two orphan kids are breaking into a museum to steal the Magellan map. They are caught - the older kid jumps out a window to avoid getting caught, leaving his younger brother behind, because he's too young to be on the run. That kid grows up to be Tom Holland.

We meet him as an adult tending bar, chatting up the ladies and stealing their jewelry. Mark Wahlberg shows up with a proposition. Wahlberg was working with Holland's missing brother to find a certain cross related to Magellan. Now he has a line on it, and he plans to steal it from the auction where it will go up for sale.

The man who wants to buy it is Antonio Banderas, descendant of the group that financed Magellan. He has a henchwoman played by the very stylish Tati Gabrielle. The plan goes wrong, mayhem erupts, Holland swings from the chandelier, etc.

Next stop Barcelona, where we get 0 shots of the Parque Quell and only a short one of the Sagrada Familia. But we do meet Wahlberg's ex-partner/lover/enemy, Sophia Ali, who has the other cross that they need. So they fight a little and then team up. And off they go to the Philippines and fall out of the airplane...

I feel like I just spent too much time explaining the McGuffin - it doesn't matter. It's just one clue that leads to the next clue, and so on and so on. There are heists, fights, and outrageous set pieces. Holland and Wahlberg bicker and banter, but it's not overbearing like, say, Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson. It zips along, the action is good, locations are pretty. I'm easy to please but even Ms. Spenser, much less a fan of mindless action, enjoyed it - even thought she might watch it again. 

Oh, and there were a number of callbacks to the video game and a set up for a sequel. We didn't get any of the callbacks, and I wonder if we'll get a sequel.