Back in 1984, ROMANCING THE STONE was a huge box office hit, making over $70 million on its $10M budget.
It's easy to see why.
Kathleen Turner is shy but successful romance novelist Jane Wilder. Quiet and sky, she's drawn into adventure when his sister is kidnapped in Columbia.
Soon after arriving and taking the wrong bus to nowhere, she meets adventurer Jack Colton, played perfectly by Michael Douglas.
Douglas is a great 80's hero full of laughs, danger and questionable loyalties.
Throw in mudslides, a crooked military ruled by a bad guy named Zolo and his evil mustache, bumbling kidnappers, more than a few shootouts and alligators and it's two hours of nostalgic fun.
Danny DeVito plays Ralph, one of the kidnappers and milks every line for laughs, throwing in plenty of physical comedy around his diminutive stature as well.
Director Robert Zemeckis has brought us many great films over the years (Castaway, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump) and he went right from this to "Back To The Future" the following year.
Also the following year, Douglas, Turner and DeVito reprised their roles in the sequel to this film, "Jewel of the Nile" which I remember being pretty weak compared to the charms of STONE.
Douglas and Turner have real chemistry from their first moments of tense verbal battles through their eventual romance.
Zemeckis keeps the action just violent enough to create real suspense and Alan Silvestri provides a perfect 80's action movie score throughout.
A ton of fun to enjoy again, STONE polishes a perfect A.
Followed in 1985 by its lesser sequel, "The Jewel of the Nile".
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