Review of Romancing the Stone (1984) by Matt M — 15 Dec 2013

A clear attempt at taking the matinee tribute adventure genre film popular at the time to more feminine grounds, or at least recreate it in a way that would seem more appealing to a feminine audience, Romancing the Stone is the story of a writer who goes off to Colombia to ransom her kidnapped little sister and steps into an amazing adventure.

Despite the many fun predicaments, a taste for exciting action sequences and a witty sense of humour, not to mention that Michael Douglas plays a mean cynical adventurer, it resembles Indiana Jones pretty closely and thus inevitably forces the comparison.

Furthermore, this film overdoes the cheesiness and often ditches the realistic side of the story that is supposed to keep us interested and genuinely invested in the characters. In other words, it is quite shallow and even its fun aspects seem watered down.

And though, as mentioned before, the comparison with Indiana Jones stands, it must also be said that Romancing the Stone doesn't seem to age half as well.