Romancing the Stone (1984)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Starring Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito, Zack Norman, Manuel Ojeda, Alfonso Arau, Holland Taylor, Mary Ellen Trainor. [PG]

The best of the Raiders of the Lost Ark-inspired action/adventure pictures of the 1980s comes with a neat premise. Romance novelist Joan Wilder (Turner) writes about handsome heroes and far-flung locales and great adventures, but she’s lonely in her mundane everyday life in New York City. After her sister is kidnapped by smugglers searching for a priceless emerald, however, she has to travel to South America to help her, and gets plunged into a real cliffhanging romantic adventure with Douglas’ rugged American guide as they search for the emerald themselves, the ruthless Colonel Zolo (Ojeda) and his secret police on their trail. Robert Zemeckis’ first big hit blends action, humor and romance in an enormously crowd-pleasing fashion. Buoyed by sharp dialogue, vivid settings (Mexico substituting Colombia onscreen), and a winning lead performance from Turner, who mixes well with charming but untrustworthy Douglas. Co-stars DeVito (as one of the smuggler-kidnappers) and Arau (as a drug dealer who happens to be an unabashed Joan Wilder fanatic) steal nearly all of their scenes. Music by Alan Silvestri, his first of nineteen straight (and counting) collaborations with Zemeckis. Sequel: Jewel of the Nile.

84/100