Really Surprised!

good back-story, and good acting

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Sheltered romance writer Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) learns her sister has been kidnapped in Columbia. The kidnappers want a map that Wilder has in her possession that supposedly leads to a treasure known as El Corazón. But the kidnappers aren't the only party interested in the map. Colonel Zolo, head of the military police, is also after the map. Through an unfortunate series of events, Wilder ends up lost in the jungle and pins her hopes for survival on an exotic bird smuggler names Jack T Colton (Michael Douglas). Is Colton the dreamy hero of Wilder's books or is he also in it for himself and after the treasure? If I were to use only one word to describe Romancing the Stone, it would be "fun". This movie has been a favorite of mine since I was lucky enough to catch it in the theater way back in 1984. It was fun then and it's just as fun now. I've probably seen it a dozen or more times since 1984. Adventure, comedy, romance, danger, action – Romancing the Stone's got it all. There's a lot here to like. Robert Zemeckis' direction is spot-on. His pacing is near-flawless. The cinematography is often stunning. The jungles of Columbia are beautifully shot. Green never looked so good. While the actual hunt for the treasure doesn't play as big a role as I would prefer, it's clever and enjoyable. The movie also features some terrific acting from Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito, and the scene stealing Alfonso Arau. I've always been especially impressed with Turner's portrayal of Joan Wilder in Romancing the Stone. She plays against type and it works. Overall, this movie's a winner.

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

A good movie! It is undoubtedly similar to Indiana Jones atmosphere and therefore has a funny script with lots of action which captivated me.Kathleen Turner shows once again her talent for comedy and drama. But I still prefer her performance in "Body Heat". However, i didn't really enjoy the "chemistry" and dynamics created between Joan Wilder and Jack Colton. For this reason, I find important to refer the movie "It Happened One Night," which holds one of my favorite pairs :)Danny De Vito embodies the thousandth time the figure of the street-smart."Romancing the Stone" is a hymn to adventure and is full of twists, etc .... It isn't original you say. So what? Continues to be entertainment at its best. It's one of those movies that should only be watched with popcorn :)

"Romancing the Stone" is not really Robert Zemeckis' best film, but it is worth watching. I am not sure if I have a whole lot say about this movie, but I'll give it a try. "Romancing the Stone" is about a lonely author Joan Wilder, who is writing her latest novel receives a phone call from her sister that she has been kidnapped in Colombia by a group of bad guys, then tells her to bring the map of treasure if she ever wants her sister back and alive again. So she travels to Colombia, and comes across a smuggler Jack T. Colton as they both teamed up to not only get her sister back, but find the emerald. The movie does have some good laughs, but I only wish if it could use some more humor. Although the movie isn't trying to be a comedy because all it wanted it is to be an action-adventure movie with romance as what the title says "Romancing the Stone." That is just me, in my opinion. With that said, I thought the action in this movie is well done but there are not as exciting as some of the action in the "Indiana Jones" movies. The cast in this movie did great. I thought Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas both made a very good chemistry with each other, and they do carry out as the pacing goes along. Also, I thought Danny DeVito did good too. Alan Silvestri does a fine job with score, but nothing too special about it. The movie is also well written; well filmed; and it is well directed by Zemeckis. It is interesting to know that this movie did well for Zemeckis as he would later go on to directed the "Back to the Future" movies; "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?;" and many others as well as winning best director for "Forrest Gump." So that is how much I got to say about this movie. Again, it's not Zemeckis' best film, but it is worth watching. I give it an 8 out of 10.