Romancing the Stone

"Romancing the Stone" came out just 3 years after "Raiders..." and in my mind is cemented as one of the great "watchable" movies, one of the very best "adventure/comedies" of all time. The on-screen chemistry between Michael Douglas (39 during filming) and Kathleen Turner (29 during filming) is wonderful, both playing their parts flawlessly. It is most likely the movie that made Douglas a big star. I can't tell you how many times, with my children, I watched this movie, and still when I watch it alone, almost like it was the first time.

Probably my favorite moment is when Joan and Jack are in the small village and surrounded by Columbian thugs with guns and he says, "OK Joan Wilder, write us out of this one." As soon as they recognize Joan Wilder as the author they love, for her romance novels, they are welcomed into the group.

The movie was directed by Bob Zemeckis who also did 'Forest Gump' and the 'BTTF' movies, among others, and he is just good at adventure types of entertaining movies.

Years ago I wanted to own the DVD and now I do.

Edit: 2019 - Now owning the DVD and I have continued to watch it every two or three years, something about it never gets old or tiresome.

Edit: 2024 - My wife and I just watched it again, part of what makes this such a good movie is each section is like a very short movie in itself and strung together to tell an exciting story. And the final scene is just so perfect considering everything that came before it.

One review is saying this is a film only for people nostalgic who lived in that time period. But I was born in the year 2000, and the movie fills me with the kinds of romance, adventure, and emotion, that is timeless. Part of the reason for this is the superb atmosphere. You really feel you are there in all of the locations. It is one of the most atmospheric movies you can watch. The other good thing about it: no pointless CGI. Everything made nowadays is just done on computers with CGI characters. It's never believable. Maybe we need to go back to how things were done in the past. Sets, matte paintings, and practical effects. CGI = no imagination.

When a version of a female Walter Mitty is ever done no doubt about it that Kathleen Turner should get first call. Unless you think she kind of did it already with Romancing The Stone.

Turner is a romance novelist by profession who in real life is a rather humdrum sort prone to accidents. But a piece of mail from her sister who is in Colombia with a map to a rather large emerald, the Hitchcockian McGuffin of the film leads her on a high road to adventure the kind of thing she writes about.

Her adventure in Colombia includes taking the wrong bus, being chased by a free wheeling army colonel, falling in the hands of drug dealers, pursued by bottom feeding crook Danny DeVito and finally partnering with the kind of adventure hero she writes about in Michael Douglas.

Douglas and Turner would prove so popular that they did two other pictures in the 80s. The film itself got an Oscar nod for Editing.

Some others in this gifted cast are Mary Ellen Trainor as her sister, Holland Taylor as Turner's editor, Alfonso Arau who is a drug dealer fan of her work, and Manuel Ojeda as the army colonel obsessed with that big green jewel.

Romancing The Stone is a lushly photographed and vigorous satire on all those old action/adventure films. You know, the stuff you only see in romance novels.

Great action comedy adventure from the mid 80's starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny De Vito. Douglas and De Vito are great but to me the film belongs to Kathleen Turner, she's fantastic and looks absolutely stunning. Its also very well directed from the future director of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump amongst others. Its often mentioned as a rip off of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom but I don't really think it is that apparent, the scenes in the Jungle at the start of the film are really good especially when they find the crashed plane "There's nothing like a good fire"!!!. Danny De Vito is really funny as the comic relief and his cousin has some funny lines "Look at them snappers, would ya". My only small complaint is the romantic stuff is a little corny but I suppose thats for the female audience. They followed this up with "Jewel of the Nile" just a year later! Sadly like most sequels it wasn't nearly as good as this, actually its not really worth bothering about unfortunately, Douglas, Turner and De Vito also teamed up again in another film "War of the Roses" but that film has no connection with this or Jewel of the Nile. So if you haven't seen Romancing the Stone look out for it, it's excellent.

I love this movie. I'm sure that it's in my top-ten somewhere, because ever since I was a kid, I've never gotten sick of watching it. The premise is one of those that's just so damn crazy it actually works. It starts with a successful romance novelist, Joan Wilder, who has just finished her last book, but lacks the sort of love-life that she writes about. When she learns that her sister has been kidnapped and is being held hostage, she takes off to South America to help her out. It seems that the kidnappers want a treasure map that is in Joan's possession. Joan is very much a city girl and doesn't fully realize the bind that she and her sis have gotten themselves into. Once in South America, she takes the wrong bus, which breaks down in the South American jungle. When she's held up by a corrupt Police Chief, a very rugged, unshaven, shot-gun toting, Michael Douglas (Jack Colton) shows up and kicks some ass. See, Jack is a bird-trapper who wants nothing more than enough cash to buy himself a yacht. Realizing that Joan is lost in the jungle and fully incapable of surviving on her own, Jack agrees to take her to the nearest town for $300 in travellers' checks, so off they go. By now, we've learned that besides the two goons who've kidnapped Joan's sister (one of which is Danny DeVito in one of his funniest roles EVER) the South American police are after the map as well. Everyone wants what's at the end of the map. What follows for the next hour and a half is one of the most exciting and funny action/adventure movies ever filmed. Michael Douglas is absolutely perfect in the role of Jack Colton and delivers some of the funniest one-liners I've ever heard. Kathleen Turner is equally great as the naive romantic and, as always, she looks great. A great script is brougth to life perfectly by Robert Zemeckis and his direction is air-tight. Please go watch this movie, even if you've seen it a hundred times already......"Oh YEAH!!!! Now that's a campfire!!!!