Romancing The Stone / The Jewel Of The Nile [1986]

March 1, 2008 | By artblog In Artist |

Romancing The Stone / The Jewel Of The Nile [1986]
In 1984 Romancing the Stone was a huge hit for director Robert Zemeckis (who later went on to make Forrest Gump, Contact and Castaway among others) thanks in no small part to the winning team of Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito. The chemistry between all three stars is infectious, but Turner steals the show from the guys, playing a pushy romance novelist who gets stuck among some dangerous figures in Colombia and has only a rumpled guide (Michael Douglas) as an ally. Zemeckis–whose specialty at the time was creating set pieces of raucous action (as in his Back to the Future trilogy)–keeps things hopping with lots of kinetic material. –Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

The Jewel of the Nile is a moderately entertaining sequel that pales by comparison to its predecessor. Romance novelist Kathleen Turner and retired soldier-of-fortune Michael Douglas return as a now-complacent couple. Bored with life on a yacht, they find excitement thrust upon them when she accepts a speaking engagement in the Middle East. Once there, she is abducted and finds herself involved with the “jewel” everyone is chasing. Douglas teams up once more with Danny DeVito to rescue his love. Less charming and more predictable than the original, this suffers for one simple reason: the characters have nowhere to go. In the original story we watched Turner blossom from timid storyteller to lusty adventuress. In this flick she is too much like all the other action adventure babes we’ve seen before. The same trio of stars reunited to better effect in DeVito’s dark comedy The War of the Roses. –Rochelle O’Gorman, Amazon.com

Customer Review: Action, comedy, romance in both films
Now you wouldn’t believe me if I said this, but I think Jewel of the nile is the better of the two. Why? You are asking. Romancing the stone is great, but lacked the action then it did with the romance. Yes, Romancing the stone was too romantic for me, still enjoyed it though. Jewel of the nile however is quite different, there is a bit of romance, but it has more comedy and action.

So, do see both films, but don’t expect to much from Romancing the stone if you’re an action type.

Customer Review: 5 stars for Romancing, only three for Jewel
Of these two movies Romancing The Stone is definitely the better one. Why Robert Zemeckis’ previous films all failed I can’t imagine, as this and the Back To The Future trilogy are some of the best movies I’ve seen for a long time. The set pieces are packed to the rafters with thrills and spills, the chemistry between the three leads may well cause your DVD player to short-circuit and the script simply does not grow old. It’s a stylish comedy adventure with Turner stealing the show from under the two guys’ noses. In comparison Jewel is a pale-imitation Indiana Jones and lacks the developments we saw in Romancing (which I think is partly due to a change of director), but if you have nothing better to do on a wet Sunday afternoon there are worse movies to watch.

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