Romancing the Stone (1984)

Director: Robert Zemeckis


Starring: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, Zack Norman, Alfonso Arau, Manuel Ojeda, Holland Taylor, Mary Ellen Trainor, Eve Smith, Joe Nesnow

More info: IMDb

Tagilne: She's a girl from the big city. He's a reckless soldier of fortune. For a fabulous treasure, they share an adventure no one could imagine... or survive.

Plot: Joan Wilder, a mousy romance novelist, receives a treasure map in the mail from her recently murdered brother-in-law. Meanwhile, her sister Elaine is kidnapped in Colombia and the two criminals responsible demand that she travel to Colombia to exchange the map for her sister. Joan does, and quickly becomes lost in the jungle after being waylayed by Zolo, a vicious and corrupt Colombian cop who will stop at nothing to obtain the map. There, she meets an irreverent soldier-of-fortune named Jack Colton who agrees to bring her back to civilization. Together, they embark upon an adventure that could be straight out of Joan's novels.

My rating: 10/10

Will I watch it again? Of course.

Ah, the 80s.  Here's yet another great flick from my earlier days.  I've probably seen this movie more than twenty times and it never gets old.  What a great adventure flick!  The bad guys are fun (Zack Norman as Ira and Danny DeVito as Ralph) and scary (Manuel Ojeda as Zolo is one mean-looking sumbitch) and the good guys are amazing to watch.  The chemistry between Michael Douglass and Kathleen Turner is one of the all-time great pairings.  They were never better than this film and they couldn't have asked for a better vehicle.  It's funny, charming, exciting, dangerous and there's plenty of action all behind a really fun score by Alan Silvestri.  The scenery isn't too shabby, either.  It's enough to make me want to go to Veracruz, Mexico (standing in for Columbia).  Ooh I love this movie so much.  What choppers!