Romancing The Stone

I love this film. I never tire of watching it and revelling in the sheer clichéd romance, adventure and slapstick comedy of it all.

It's obviously a derivative of, and heavily influenced by the "Indiana Jones" series, but also has its own special flavor.

The story begins in New York when the peaceful existence of romance novelist Joan Wilder is abruptly turned upside down when she receives a map in the mail from her recently murdered brother-in-law and a frantic phonecall from her sister, who has been kidnapped by a couple of villains, one of whom is fantastically played by Danny DeVito, who are after the map that Joan now has.

Joan, who secretly longs to be carried off into the sunset like one of the heroine's in her books decides to take action and embarks on a Colombian adventure, which will change her life forever.

Upon arrival in Colombia, the secret police, who are also after the map, trick Joan into getting on the wrong bus, which they hijack in the middle of nowhere and this is where the story really begins.

Joan suddenly finds herself in the middle of a dangerous jewel-hunt in the wilds of Colombia where she meets up with a younger and slightly less 'lizard-like' Michael Douglas who plays Jack, a swashbuckling, debonair and actually rather sexy adventurer who very unwillingly gets roped in to being a good guy.

Jack and Joan bond over a mudslide down a mountainside, with Jack landing face first in Joan’s lap –a tad forward for a first date, but Douglas was infinitely better looking at this stage of his life, so ultimately not too objectionable to the repressed Joan.

Joan then persuades Jack into helping her find her sister, which he reluctantly does with the lure of the treasure foremost in his mind.