Review of Romancing The Stone / Jewel Of The Nile Twin Pack

Introduction

Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile were both popular 80`s action comedies starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito.

The first movie, Romancing the Stone came along in 1984 and saw romantic novelist Turner going to Columbia to deliver a treasure map to ransom her kidnapped sister. She teams up with Douglas and they go after the treasure and fall in love.

The second movie, The Jewel of the Nile, came a year later and sees the couple holidaying in the Mediterranean. Turner heads off to Africa to write about an upcoming leader, whilst Douglas and DeVito are after "The Jewel of the Nile". They meet up, having realised that they`re all after the same thing.

Video

Both movies are presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and the video quality is pretty good considering the age of the films. The image is free of dirt, but does suffer from a very small amount of grain at times. The picture is sharp and reasonably detailed.

Romancing the Stone is a visual treat due to the beauty of the scenery. The mountains, gorges, rivers and waterfalls all look fantastic and really give add to the enjoyment of the action. There are no special effects as such, aside from a couple of car chases etc.

The Jewel of the Nile relies on special effects for it`s visuals much more than the first film, and comes badly unstuck as at times they are amongst the worst you`re likely to see on DVD. Explosions and back projection look very unconvincing throughout the film, but two scenes stand out as being laughably bad, and unfortunately they are both pivotal scenes in the film. Firstly the jet plane chase from the town into the desert and secondly the final showdown, both of which will have you sniggering.

Audio

Sound for both films comes in Dolby Digital 2.0 which provides a matrixed Dolby Pro-Logic feed. The sound quality is above average, and provides reasonable action from the front and centre channels, along with basic low-level use of the rear speakers. The dialogue level on both films is slightly low, but the is easily adjusted.

The Jewel of the Nile suffered from cheesy visual effects, and it also suffers from some very cheesy eighties synthesiser action movie music, which has aged the film quite badly.

Features

Extras consist of the theatrical trailer for both movies.

The discs are packaged in an Amaray style case containing a second interior tray and a single-page insert showing some other films available in the double-pack series.

Conclusion

Many people in their late twenties and early thirties have very fond memories of mid-eighties films that they saw as a teenager. I certainly fondly remembered Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile and watching the films again fifteen years down the line has left me with mixed emotions.

Romancing the Stone is great fun – entertaining from start to finish, with plenty of laughs, some great scenes and a good plotline. Add the spectacular scenery and chemistry between Douglas and Turner and the film is still a winner. The Jewel of the Nile however is an atrocious movie which myself and a friend wouldn`t have bothered watching to the end if I didn`t have to write this review. It`s very much a case of making a fast sequel because the first film was successful, but having no plot and none of the ideas that made the first movie so good. Instead it relies on bits of plot spread all over the place, effects sequences (which are very poor indeed) and a "comedy" script which isn`t very funny. I would go as far as saying that these two movies have been released as a double-pack because the second film would not justify a release by itself and is nothing more than a freebie to those who want the original.

Overall, this double pack contains one very good film and one poor film, both presented reasonably well with basic extras. I`d actually prefer a special edition of Romancing the Stone with lots of extras and no sign of the sequel anywhere!

The content rating reflects a score of 8 for the first film which I thoroughly enjoyed and 3 for the second which I certainly did not.