Saturday, June 8, 2019

Delayed Reaction: Romancing the Stone


The Pitch: Raiders of the Lost Ark but with more flirtation.

A romance novelist gets caught up in a wild adventure after her sister is kidnapped.

If you are going to make an off-brand Indiana Jones movie, you might as well do it right. This is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who in a lot of ways, is like Spielberg-lite. Michael Douglas is a solid substitute for Harrison Ford. Kathleen Turner might even be an upgrade for Karen Allen. And, much like Raiders of the Lost Ark, it's hard to say much bad about the movie. It's fun. The chemistry of the leads is great. The movie is just the right length. It has a zippy screenplay that doesn't get too bogged down in the world building or unneeded background. Enough on the fringes fell just short of me loving it, but it's hard not to recommend it.

It is interesting to think about what would've happened with Robert Zemeckis without this movie. He hadn't found much success before Romancing the Stone. If this flopped, he wasn't likely to get another big budget movie, at least not for a long time. So, no Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or Forest Gump. That's not a world I want to live in.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend

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