In 1985, 20th Century Fox and producer Michael Douglas rushed to capitalize on the huge box office success of the previous summer's 'Romancing the Stone" with its lesser sequel, THE JEWEL OF THE NILE.
Part of the fun of "Romancing" was watching Kathleen Turner as romantic novelist go from mousy and quiet to full blown adventure-ready power woman.
Since she's already made that arc, the sequel picks up six months later, with Joan (Turner) and her love Jack (Michael Douglas at his 80's best) getting a bit bored of sailing the world.
Joan is approached by a Middle Eastern leader to come to his kingdom and write his story. We know Omar is a bad dude, since the music tells us everytime he's on screen and he's surrounded by shady accomplices.
Soon, Jack is on his way to rescue Joan.
Danny DeVito is back as the inept crook Ralph, bumbling his way through the adventure via every stubborn mule and camel available.
Some of the action set pieces are pretty good, especially a long scene in which Jack grabs a fighter jet to escape the bad guys.
By the time the finale rolls around, its all a bit predictable and long in the tooth, making us remember the original with admiration. The idea of the Jewel character played by Avner Eisenberg is interesting, but just kind of peters out, wasted in its potential alongside the considerable talents of Turner & Douglas.
The first film was directed by Robert Zemeckis (Cast Away, Forrest Gump) and the sequel is directed by Lewis Teague (Cujo) so that kind of speaks for itself.
A disappointing follow up to one of the best action adventures of the 80's, this Jewel is decidedly cubic zirconia and gets a C.
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