Green Ice (1981)

Director: Ernest Day

Starring: Ryan O'Neal, Anne Archer, Omar Sharif, Domingo Ambriz, John Larroquette, Philip Stone, Michael Sheard, Enrique Lucero

More info: IMDb

Tagline: He wanted adventure...She craved revenge...Emeralds held the answer.

Plot: A jolly romantic comedy set against a background of torture, murder and rebel guerrillas being fed to the hogs in the prisons of Colombia. O'Neal and Archer play a couple of Americans meeting cute in Mexico, then heading for Colombia, where she takes over from a sister shot while working for the rebel cause, and he (at first with itchy fingers for the loot) helps her replenish the rebel coffers through a daring heist of emeralds from a government stronghold right out of a James Bond movie (with Sharif a villain to match).

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again? Nn, no, no.

This is nothing more than a slightly south of professional, middle of the road caper picture with a cheesy score (and songs), a meandering and implausible script and an annoying performance from O'Neal. The Colombian scenery, however, is gorgeous. It's ROMANCING THE STONE (1984)-light. It's as if Robert Zemeckis (the director of RtS) saw this and called 'bullshit' and made his own Colombian gemstone adventure and did it a gazillion times better. I'm not going to pull a comparison card on this movie but it's hard not to think of the better film when watching this. O'Neal's performance is forced and too light hearted. He's playing the type of character he did so often back then and it doesn't work so well in this flick. There's a scene early in the picture where he drives up to a man working on his airplane and instantly knows what the problem is...from 30 feet away, knowing nothing about why the guy's tinkering with it to begin with! He suggested replacing the electronic something or another and he's so fucking smug about it. It's retarded bullshit like that that sinks this picture. Anne Archer fares better and John Larroquette is hilarious (and turns in the most enjoyable performance in the movie) but that's not enough to save this thing. Go watch ROMANCING THE STONE a few dozen times instead.