quarterwavevertical
I'm not a fan of romantic comedies, but this is one exception to that.The whole premise is ridiculous, the plot twists improbable, but who cares? This is a movie meant to entertain and it does so successfully. Don't look for any political statements or tests of one's intellect--you won't find any. Just sit back, suspend your disbelief, and enjoy the show.
leplatypus
This is an unpretentious movie that is cool to watch because what it lacks on money, it compensates with a great cast doing extraordinary feats in the often forgotten central America: from what i have seen, i went just a few times there: Honduras ("mosquito coast"), Panama ("the tailor"), Costa Rica ("jurassic park" movies), El Salvador ("voces") and for sure Columbia ("clear and present danger"). So there, i can see that there is a big jungle with a load of rains, mud, snakes and crocodiles... Maybe there is a bit too much of pursuits but at least, the actor are 100% in the action and there is no time-out as all Zemeckis movies! As i see it only now, maybe this movie has even more appeal than at its release because Turner looks indeed like a future adult star in the 90s! Just one more thing because i didn't catch this: why the Colombian military goes to NYC to have a treasure map and why her sister was unaware of this map??
Fluke_Skywalker
Plot; A romance novelist goes to Columbia where she teams up with a mercenary to rescue her Sister and find a priceless treasure.Romancing The Stone is a prime example of talent working together to lift the material. That's not to say that it's a bad script (a tad politically incorrect at times, but not bad). In fact, it's reasonably witty and evokes classic movies like The African Queen. But thanks to sure direction by Robert Zemeckis and great chemistry between charming leads Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner (and a humorous turn by Danny DeVito as one of the baddies), it rises above what in lesser hands would've been disposable, B-movie fare. It's certainly no Raiders Of The Lost Ark, but then what is?
pyrocitor
Romancing the Stone opens, in a feat of winking fourth-wall poking, by thrusting the viewer into the lurid climax of one of novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner)'s steamy Western romances. It's fun, cleverly energetic, and playfully teasing, leaving the features of her strapping Harlequin hunk in shadowy silhouette - who IS that masked man? The film's most exquisite metatextual joy to be had: imagining producer Michael Douglas reading the film's screenplay, and inwardly squealing "ME, ME, IT'S ME!!!" You can hardly blame him - the film, after all, gets off on that kind of wish fulfillment. Helmed by a pre-Back to the Future Robert Zemeckis, and sharing its same sense of colossal, goofy charm, Romancing the Stone is (nearly) clever enough to have its cake and eat it too, lampooning the matinée serial adventure silliness of Indiana Jones while still indulging in its escapist frivolities. All that, and a side of Danny DeVito, too. What's not to love? On the spectrum of 'Indiana Jones silly' to 'just-plain-silly,' the needle definitively skews closer to Brendan Fraser's Mummy than from Henry Jones Jr. Nonetheless, Zemeckis' work here is disarmingly spirited enough not to make the comparison an affront. As if trying to get a leg up on Spielberg and all his boring, pesky plots, Zemeckis keeps his film galloping along at such a breakneck pace, ricocheting from the asphalt jungles of New York (full of peddlers hocking stuffed monkeys, of all things) to the sumptuously expansive jungles of Mexi-er-Colombia, that the audience has no time to play 'count the plot holes.' After all, did Turner and Douglas stop to count, machete-ing through jungles, diving down mudslides and waterfalls, spelunking through caves clutching a tattered treasure map, and, yes, vine-swinging over a chasm with more than a twinkle in the eye? No, they assuredly did not. Indiana Jones pastiches are all fun and games, however, until the inner film critic is irked, and there's no denying that some of Zemeckis' airier touches begin to show their age. Naturally, dated racial stereotypes cheerfully abound (those seeking an inevitable accompanying drinking game: swig every time the Colombians' only discernible dialogue is "Vámonos, muchachos!"), and Zemeckis fumbles confusedly in deciding whether to take the p*ss out of Douglas' rugged saviour stereotype or buy into it whole hog. Similarly, watching Turner and Douglas cavort around in the jungle, there's an almost comical lack of urgency to the kidnapping MacGuffin that's lured her out of her comfort zone into the realm of adventure, and Zemeckis playing it up to transparently mirror one of her novels only goes so far. Still, the action is breezy (including some James Bond calibre practical effects car flips), the setting is gorgeous, and the incomparable Alan Silvestri's musical score - the oddest blend of MTV synthpop and samba bounce - is so gosh-darn enjoyable, it alone makes the film worth the romp. Fittingly, Zemeckis stacks his cast with doppelgangers of the A-listers of old - Kathleen Turner, the spitting image of a young Lauren Bacall; Michael Douglas, jutting his chin in an impressive (and hopefully conscious) facsimile of his father - to add to the Classical Hollywood zest, and their chemistry is palpably jubilant. Turner makes for a flat-out adorable lead, ushering in her potentially stale transformation from mousy, hopeless romantic to slick action star due to her carefully honed, neurotic bubbliness. By contrast, as the man sweeping her off her feet, Douglas is, unsurprisingly, too reedy and reptilian to convince as a matinée idol worthy of the name 'Jack Colton,' but he's so enormously snarky and charismatic it's easy to forget that in the face of enjoying him try so hard. Danny DeVito's comic relief thug may occupy an entirely extraneous subplot, but, due to the fortunate side effect of being Danny DeVito, he's outrageously entertaining enough to justify inclusion with no context needed. Finally Manuel Ojeda makes for an unexpectedly debonair and genuinely frightening antagonist, as the fearsome something-or-other pursuing our heroes for some such undefined reason. It's somewhat of a forgotten relic of the decade, and hasn't aged as memorably as the more straightforward adventure yarns it pokes fun at and lusts after but Zemeckis' earliest hit is carefree charm personified, and easily worth its while. Romancing the Stone (you've been waiting for a metaphor as lazy as this, but what can I say: this is a film all about giving the people what they want) is one buried treasure worth excavating, even from the belly of the crocodile of time (sure). -7/10
