a5c7b9f00b Joan Wilder is a mousey writer of romance novels. She finds a package from her sister mailed from Colombia in her mailbox. A call from her sister tells her that she has been kidnapped and that bringing the package to Colombia is necessary for her safety and release. Being fairly clueless, she leaves for Colombia to rescue her sister. She is lost within hours of her arrival. She is nearly murdered by one of the men searching for the package when Jack Colton, a fairly low life American rescues her. They begin a journey through the jungle with bullets flying nearby. Is Joan up to all of this? What a way to find out. The writer of romantic novels Joan Wilder travels to south America to look for and rescue her kidnapped sister. She finds herself stranded in the jungles and finds help in the form of the soldier of fortune Jack Colton. The two go through a number of adventures, deal with the bad villains Ralph and company, and end up falling in love. Movies like this were awesome...huge from the Golden Age of the Silver Screen into the '90s when they started to peter out until, well, until they vanished leaving us with nothing but Super Hero films to fill the void...<br/><br/>...I have nothing against Super Hero films, but I love adventure films too.<br/><br/>I can see where folks would not like it, especially the people that take themselves too seriously. It is stuck in a genera that is at once extremely pulp and kind of serialized. Even if it's not a sequel, you know the story.<br/><br/>The Goonies, Nate and Hayes, Jake Speed, Firewalker, Vibes, Big Trouble in Little China, Young Sherlock Holmes...and of course the crown, the king, the Indiana Jones movies.<br/><br/>They are all close enough to one another to really fit into the same mold. The characters change, the concepts stay the same and....we love it.<br/><br/>Enter the Roguish hero and the damsel in distress in an exotic location to find X marking the MacGuffin, but first they have to work their way through obstacles both natural and man made in the form of a nasty antagonist and a couple of henchmen. Throw in a semi-bumbling sidekick and you have what I like to call "High Adventure." "Romancing the Stone" follows that outline and if you are the kind of individual that is still young enough at heart to love adventure films...you will inevitably like this movie.<br/><br/>If you are the kind of man or woman that takes everything extremely seriously and refuses to play at all, not matter what it is. If you are the type that would use the word "compete" instead of "play" or "game" than you are going to hate this movie. This movie won a few awards, and it should have. After I saw this back in 1984 in the theater, I went back and saw it probably 4 or 5 times more. I was only in high school, but I really enjoyed the set up and the execution of this smart, 'Jungle-Love' story. The real test is how does it do over time and watching it 21+ years later, it still holds itself in a practically perfect place. I know it was eighty-four then, but it just still plays out well, everything is still as it should be. It is amazing that the original role of the male lead was offered to Christopher Reeves (Superman) that would have been a whole different Jack Colten, character no doubt about it in my mind.<br/><br/>Two convincing actors and a right on supporting cast, a location that is very odd for a romance to take place, however it takes shape along the way. You understand the story as it unfolds, and does it very well! The acting was vaudevillian at times and very 'festive' at other times, and made for an interesting combination. The 'adversarial' Ira and Devito's Character 'Ralph' was quite a surprisingly wise choice as an assistant Villain. For as much suspense filled activity, really great performance and dialog between the characters in this first, a second installment was made as a continuation of the story. <br/><br/>This was 'The Jewel Of The Nile'. Now this with a few great scenes, set-up shots framed really 'smart' and the 'Jewel', his performance in the movie that was sort of a heart-warming, attribute, beside that what cooled it for me was, taking a natural order of people, and inserting American-pop music into their midst and trying to make as if it was all just happening that way. I didn't understand that. It may be small to someone else, but to me it is an authenticating problem. There was a change of directors for 'Jewel' as well and just a bit too much hustle and bustle, just kind of going through one tribe and nationality to another, then a 'scenery' change at one point, that if it was the same country and area they were filming in, it didn't seem like it was the same area once the change of camera shots had happened. It ended the saga and connected the story, but I am quite satisfied with the original storyline and Zemekis's Directing. (***) Director Robert Zemeckis displays such dazzling cinematic know-how that it's genuinely depressing when this film falls off into the usual self-ridicule. Mousy romance novelist Joan Wilder (<a href="/name/nm0000678/">Kathleen Turner</a>) receives a treasure map in the mail from the recently-murdered husband of her sister Elaine (<a href="/name/nm0870729/">Mary Ellen Trainor</a>), who has been kidnapped and who asks Joan to bring the map to her in Cartegena, Colombia. Afraid to leave the security of her apartment, Joan nevertheless travels to Colombia but gets lost in the jungle. Swashbuckling American bird-smuggler Jack Colton (<a href="/name/nm0000140/">Michael Douglas</a>) offers to lead her to Cartegena for $375 (because he's saving to buy a boat), but they soon find themselves pursued by corrupt Colombian policeman Zolo (<a href="/name/nm0645327/">Manuel Ojeda</a>) and his private army and by treasure-hunting cousins, Ira (<a href="/name/nm0635649/">Zack Norman</a>) and Ralph (<a href="/name/nm0000362/">Danny DeVito</a>), all of whom will stop at nothing to get the map. Romancing the Stone is based on an original screenplay by American screenwriter Diane Thomas [1946-1985]. The story goes that Thomas was working as a waitress and pitched her screenplay to one of her customers—Michael Douglas. Thomas was killed in 1985 while riding in her Porsche that had been given to her by Douglas as thanks for her work with him on the movie. The movie was novelized from the script by American author Catherine Lanigan in conjunction with the release of the film in 1984. A sequel, <a href="/title/tt0089370/">The Jewel of the Nile (1985)</a>, followed in 1985. It was mailed to her from Colombia by her sister Elaine's husband Eduardo. He had made some bad deals with some Colombian nasties and had the map in his possession and would not give it up, which is why they killed him. He mailed it to Joan in New York on the day he was killed. Ira and Ralph had somehow heard that Elaine's husband had the map and kidnapped her, hoping that Zolo wouldn't find out. Cartagena, Colombia is on the Caribbean coast of northwestern South America. Colombia is the first South American country you would enter if you were driving from Central America through Panama to South America. Upon entering Colombia, turn north, head up the coast, and you will eventually get to Cartagena. Although Joan Wilder originally planned to go to Cartagena in Bolívar province, she wound up in Cordóba province, which is to the south of Cartagena. Cordoba province's capital is Montería, also visible on the map. Joan and Jack were drinking from a bottle of Jose Cuervo Gold. You can tell from the large square shape of the quart bottle. Yes and yes. The bushmaster (Lachesis muta muta) is the largest venomous snake in the world. They've been known to grow to a length of 14 feet, although their average length is around six feet. The Bushmaster ranges in jungle environments throughout Central and South America. Most likely because their business, producing and selling drugs, was growing. As Joan and Jack walk up to Juan's house, Jack tells Joan that the marijuana-filled plane in which they camped out the night before might have been a lost shipment belonging to Juan. Joan then begins to exclaim that Juan and the men in the village are drug runners, but Jack silences her immediately. Drug runners usually are very suspicious of any strangers who wander into their village, even if they're factually lost. Juan himself is very suspicious of the pair, even pointing a gun at them, but fortunately it turns out that he's a fan of Joan's books. Ralph was driving an old Renault 4, Elaine was driving a shiny red Cobra, and the bellmaker (<a href="/name/nm0000778/">Alfonso Arau</a>)'s "Little Mule" was a 1982 Ford Bronco. He says, "I lost my langostino." Langostino can refer to several types of seafood but, in the context of the movie, it probably is referring to a type of prawn (shrimp). The Devil's Fork, which Juan pointed out to Joan, is one of the clues on the map. Jack wanted to get into town before Juan could find out that the fork was a marker leading to the treasure. Jack didn't want to share the wealth with Juan if they'd found it, no matter how trustworthy Juan might have seemed, being a fan of Joan's. The French title for this movie is À la Poursuite du Diamant Vert, [translation: In Pursuit of the Green Diamond], so El Corazon must be a green diamond, aka an emerald. After the alligator bites off Zolo's hand and swallows El Corazon, it goes over the wall into the water and Jack dives after it. The scene changes back to Joan's publisher's office in New York. Gloria (<a href="/name/nm0852466/">Holland Taylor</a>) is reading the ending of Joan's new book about her recent adventure but with a slightly different ending (whereby Jack meets her at the airport). The publisher says, "You're now a world-class hopeless romantic," and Joan corrects her. "HopeFUL romantic," she says. In the next scene, Joan is walking home with a bag of groceries, her hair flowing and a confident look on her face and in her step. She stops outside her apartment building where she sees a big sailboat parked in the street. Jack throws down a ladder, Joan climbs aboard, spots his alligator boots, and says "I like your boots." Jack replies, "Yeah, that poor old yellow-tailed guy developed a case of fatal indigestion. Died right in my arms." Joan says, "I can't blame him. If I were to die, there's nowhere else on earth I'd rather be." They kiss, and the boat "sails" down the street as the credits roll. Angelina out of Colombia. Simply titled End Titles, the music was composed by American film score composer Alan Silvestri and played by the American jazz fusion band called Spyro Gyra. To get the lower rating, two scenes at the end needed to be removed. The theatrical version was cut as well but it only lacked 1 second instead of 9. The uncut version has been released on DVD with a BBFC rating of 12.
The Romancing The Stone Download
Updated: Jan 31, 2020
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