Best movie ever!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) has achieved her romantic dreams with Jack Colton (Michael Douglas) in this film's predecessor, Romancing the Stone. Or, wait, has she? The in-love twosome have been sailing around the world on Jack's boat, having many adventures. But, there is no ring on Joan's finger yet and she, as a successful romance novelist, is a bit bored with the life at sea. In addition, she has writer's block. Likewise, Jack has been taking Joan for granted. Therefore, when the two stop at an Arab port and Joan is charmed by a Middle East ruler, Omar, who wants her to write his autobiography, the lady writer says yes. Jack is not pleased. Then, too, Colton encounters an old nemesis, Ralph (Danny DeVito) who is interested in Jack helping him find a new treasure called "Jewel of the Nile". Soon, this awkward duo is trying to rescue Joan, who has actually been kidnapped by the evil Omar. Things go from bad to worse as Omar's cohorts blow up Jack's boat, with, thankfully, no one aboard. In desert country and being chased by bad dudes, Jack and Ralph decide to use a plane as a getaway vehicle and jet off, on the ground, across the Sahara. What fun! Can they rescue Joan and grab a treasure, too? This film doesn't have the charm of the first film, Romancing the Stone, as few sequels do. Nevertheless, it is cute, clever and funny, at times. The three stars, Turner, Douglas, and DeVito are a dynamite threesome while the unknown secondary cast is just fine. Yes, the scenery is lovely and does Turner and Douglas look young and attractive in their well-chosen costumes. With few offerings from Hollywood these days, in the romantic comedy genre, one has to "go back to the future" to find treasures, indeed.

Talk about your old bait and switch, this film offers two of them. First off, the jewel of the picture isn't some fabulously expensive gem, but a person (Avner Eisenberg) who represents the spiritual power of his people. And then, instead of giving you Omar Sharif as the would-be emperor, you get a look-alike character portrayed by someone named Spiros Focas who I never heard of before, but is apparently one of Greece's finest and most respected actors. Who knew? You know, if I'm flipping through the cable channels and come across "Romancing the Stone", I'm liable to stop right there and tune in. I always enjoyed watching that one. "Jewel of the Nile" doesn't quite capture the same magic for me, as the Jack Colton/Joan Wilder romance balancing act gets a little tedious at times, and Danny DeVito is reduced to playing the Wile E. Coyote character of all those Roadrunner cartoons. Some of it's funny, but a lot of it seems forced as well.What I didn't get was the convoluted resolution to the whole 'Jewel' premise. Recall at the finale that the crowd was wildly chanting for 'Omar, Omar' right before the would-be emperor went over the side, and then they quickly replaced it with 'Al-Jawhara, Al-Jawhara' in a split second when the kidnapped Jewel was freed. Just how loyal were the Omar followers supposed to be anyway? Well I guess it was never intended to make much sense. As a vehicle to reunite Michael Douglas with Kathleen Turner and capitalize on RTS, it looks like this was a moderate success. They make for an attractive on screen couple as far as that goes, and the film offers some light hearted if mindless diversion. One bit of trivia I learned watching the story this time around, who knew that Joan Wilder wrote 'Return of the King'?

"The Jewel of the Nile" is a follow-up to "Romancing the Stone". It lacks the greatness of the original but it keeps the same spirit. This one has lots of adventure and action (even more than the original, and is also far more violent).Robert Zemeckis didn't return to direct this one, but 4 of the same actors reprise their roles: Michael Douglas (who also produced it), Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito and Holland Taylor. The rest of the cast is entirely different. There are plenty of new characters and new villains.As the title says, this movie takes us not to Colombia again, but to the Egyptian deserts (in Africa, close to the Nile river). Exotic like the original's but a completely different scenario than the original's.The main villain in this is Omar Khalifa (well portrayed by Spiros Focás). He is just as treacherous and dangerous as Zolo from the original film. Like Zolo, he fools Joan Wilder so that she falls in his entrapments. He pretends to be a good person, but he's a brutal dictator. But I do like Omar's Egyptian accent. He speaks with a charming accent. Funny that he plays an Egyptian when the actor is Greek, but then, Demis Roussos is a Greek who was born in Egypt.Avner Eisenberg does a nice portrayal of The Jewel but the character has a mix of charm and silliness and isn't always lovable.This film has some really funny and great sequences, but also has a large number of faults and does not possess the charm of the original. Therefore, it doesn't match the original's greatness.Apparently Michael and Kathleen only made this movie because their contract forced them to. Kathleen even attempted to back it out but was threatened by 20th Century Fox to be sued with a $25 million lawsuit. Geez, that is just so wrong! They shouldn't have been forced to do something they didn't want. I sort of can see why they didn't want to do it and why Robert Zemeckis refused to make the sequel.I used to like this movie almost as much as the original. But now it doesn't seem that great to me anymore. Looking at it now, many things about it don't make much sense. The original is a great blockbuster and a timeless classic.

I remember when I first viewed this action adventure romp in the 80's after its entertaining predecessor "Romancing The Stone" and being disappointed then but gave it another chance recently, unfortunately with the same underwhelming impact as before.The main fault here is that it's an almost exact remake of the original so that there's no plot surprises or character development to compel the viewer's interest. It also makes the same mistake as the second Indiana Jones film in devoting the bulk of its length to an extended chase sequence which for all its pyrotechnic interludes actually ends up boring you to indifference. It's also weighed down with a lumpen synth-driven soundtrack completely at odds with the Eastern locations.In its favour, it's colourful and bright, has one or two smile-inducing lines and the leads try hard, Douglas handsome and stylish as the matinée dare-devil idol, Jack, Turner pretty and vivacious as romantic adventurer Joan and DeVito his usual waspish self as Jack's perennial rival for the imaginary gem of the misleading title.You can certainly see where the money's been spent, with exotic locations, literally hundreds of extras and enough expensive hardware to supply a small third-world country. However, like so many things from the decade that style forgot, namely the 80's, it hasn't aged well and looks like nothing so much these days as about a hundred Duran Duran videos welded back to back, which I don't mean as a compliment!