Romancing the Stone (1984)

Before I start, I’d like to tell you that I’m going to try to pick up the pace with the movie reviews.  I have a whole list to do and because of my eye infection, its causing me to be a bit slower. I know its really been not looking like I’m putting too much time on it but I am, it just takes time to go through the movies and find it all.  Most of the movies are not available on Netflix so I had to physically get a copy. Anyways, so expect more reviews 🙂 It might dip into the first week of September!  Lets get on with this one!

Next recommendation up was in response to my review of Coma (HERE) from Mikey at Screenkicker.  He told me to that I “couldn’t go wrong” with Romancing the Stone when I asked about Michael Douglas films! Check it out!

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Cast: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito,

Romancing the Stone is an action-adventure-comedy focused around the life of adventure novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner).  Her success in writing does not reflect her personality.  However, when she receives a phone call from her sister Elaine telling her that she is kidnapped and that she needs her to bring to the kidnappers (Danny DeVito and Zack Norman) in Columbia a treasure map in order to be rescue her.  Reluctantly, she arrives in Columbia and after some mishaps, she is lost on her way to Cartagena and meets a jungle saavy Jack T. Colton (Michael Douglas) and requests for his help.  After some bargaining, he agrees but to find out that she is being chased by Captain Zolo (Manuel Ojeda), police authority of Columbia who is after the same treasure map and will do anything to make sure he gets it.

I love action adventure movies a lot! This one may have been made before a more recent but similar flick, Nim’s Island but the moment I saw the character of Joan Wilder on screen, my mind thought, Nim’s Island right away.  The story isn’t completely the same but it also features a scaredy-cat adventure novelist that has to conquer their fears and find their courage and protect someone else while being protected also.  Also, I thought to myself, this sure isn’t War of the Roses! That was the first movie I saw Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas on the same screen…but point is, I really found this movie fun.

The best part of this movie was Michael Douglas hands down! I’m still learning about the movies that Michael Douglas has done and no, I haven’t watched Wall Street yet.  I will soon enough.  I have it already.  BUT, somehow I like Michael Douglas in this role because its different from his always being rich and arrogant all the time. He’s still not totally a doe-eyed sweetheart but still, he’s not in a shirt and tie and he’s actually fighting to survive.  Plus, who can say that he doesn’t have great chemistry with Kathleen Turner? Because he does.  Even in War of the Roses, they did, even when they were hating each other’s guts.  They have a believable vibe that just works.

I actually enjoyed this more as a comedy than as an adventure because it wasn’t that adventurous when they weren’t being shot at. It was pretty funny.  Mostly Kathleen Turner’s character, the nervous author was just ridiculously silly sometimes.  Most of the other time, its the stupid kidnappers.  We always have those in these movies, right? This time we have Danny DeVito and he always cracks me up (even when he was doing the voice of The Lorax)  ;).  This guy is totally awesome!

Overall, Romancing the Stone definitely has a fun element to it.  You want to see an outstanding performance by Michael Douglass out of his norm, this one is definitely a great choice.  Its a keeper in my collection and I will watch it again.  Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of Michael Douglas but even I was impressed 🙂 So maybe, if you haven’t seen this, you should give it a shot.  If you have, tell me what you thought about it!