Review 165: Romancing the Stone

Romancing the Stone is a hilarious, exciting, fast paced, heart racing romantic, adventure comedy film and one of Robert Zemeckis' best films and

Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) is a successful albeit lonely romance novelist who one day receives a call that her sister, Elaine (Mary Ellen Trainor) has been kidnapped by antiquities smugglers, cousins Ira (Zack Norman) and Ralph (Danny DeVito) who instruct her to go to Columbia with a treasure map she received in the post: Elaine's ransom. Upon arrival, Joan is thrown into a whirlwind adventure in the Columbian Jungle to save her sister. Along the way she receives the help of a brash bird smuggler, Jack Colton (Michael Douglas) and together they embark on a quest to search for the priceless gem located on the map.

The plot is simple, but a highly energetic, hilarious, non stop rolarcoster ride from start to finish.
This film starts and it literally never stops,
It's very chaos driven, but the chaos is actually hilarious, the film firmly establishes Joan Wilder as a very ordinary & lonely person who's suddenly thrust out of her comfort zone and has to adapt to her current predicament in order to survive.

Director Robert Zemeckis' direction is energetic and spirited, the cinematography is beautiful and perfectly captures the exotic beauty of Columbia, the scenery is breathtaking, the costumes are terrific, the score by Alan Silvestri is catchy, the Columbian setting is exotic and vibrant, the locations are gorgeous, the stunts are outstanding, there some excellent moments of suspense, the production design is superb,

Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner