ROMANCING THE STONE - Blu-Ray (2oth Century-Fox 1984) Fox Home Video

With its long-haired fortune hunter, hot-blooded damsel in distress, and, sweat-soaked tropical locales, Robert Zemeckis’ Romancing the Stone (1984) is a throwback to all those over-the-top, B-budgeted Saturday matinee adventure serials from the 1940’s. Fueled by the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), producer/star, Michael Douglas acquired the rights to Diane Thomas’ like-minded fluff - a yarn to inveigle romance novelist, Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner), into the sordid escapism into the fantastic life she generally fantasizes about, after her sister, Elaine (Mary Ellen Trainor) is actually captured by a Columbia drug smuggler. Against the advice of her publicist, Gloria (Holland Taylor), Joan departs the relative safety of her Manhattan apartment for the wilds of South America. Inadvertently, she is befriended by American wanderer/fortune hunter, Jack Colton (Michael Douglas), the physical embodiment of heroism Joan has always imagined as the man for her, albeit, without Colton’s rather jaded heart, sarcasm, and, unrelenting desire to leave the jungles and get back to civilization. Together, these two would-be adventurers explore hostile terrain, spend a harrowing night inside the shell of a downed plane getting high by burning kilos of cocaine, and, are chased from village to countryside by the advancing rebels and the police who are after Ralph (Danny DeVito) and Ira (Zack Norman), the men actually responsible for Elaine’s predicament. All are after one thing - the mystery of El Corazon - a fabulous gemstone hidden somewhere in the rainforest.

Romancing the Stone had its share of detractors. Indeed, within a year of its release there was a porn-version to consider, substituting the word ‘Bone’ for ‘Stone’. But even before this blue homage, the picture had attained its success and status as a runaway hit with audiences, even if the critics intermittently found the picture contrived, silly and slapped together with a certain sexual chemistry between its two stars, easily to overcome the shortcomings of its narrative structure. There is something to this, although precisely what, I’m sure I don’t know as I have always sincerely enjoyed all the feather-weight fluff on tap. Zemeckis keeps the pace of this eclectic comedy/actioner mostly taut, only intermittently to pause and insert some superfluous nonsense, ever to augment the main narrative. There is, for example, really no good reason to stage an outdoor carnival, other than to give our hero and heroine a momentary respite from all their swashbuckling and sleuthing and fall hopelessly/madly in love. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner have definite on-screen chemistry – his glib fortune hunter in perfect sync with her naïve fish-out-of-water turned wild flower with an edge of determination. Danny Devito is the perfect comic foil – making the most of what is essentially a cameo turn. At the time of its release, Romancing the Stone was a huge box office success – prompting a sequel; The Jewel of the Nile (1985). Tragically, screenwriter, Diane Thomas, who had so carefully crafted the original movie, was not around to enjoy the fruits of her labors - killed in an automobile accident shortly after the premiere in the candy-apple red sports car made a gift of appreciation to her by Michael Douglas. Viewed today, while some of the clothes and hairstyles have undeniably dated, the comedy, charm and spirit of adventure to permeate throughout, have not. Romancing the Stone is a wonderful bit of 80’s escapism.

Fox Home Video’s Blu-Ray easily bests its DVD predecessor in both color fidelity and image sharpness. Colors that were moderately pronounced in standard def are now rich, bold and balanced. Contrast is superbly realized. Another Fox Blu-ray transfer, culled from elements remastered for the DVD, Romancing the Stone could certainly benefit from a new 4K upgrade – one, likely never to come. This Blu-ray also bests its predecessor by clearing up some lingering age-related artifacts. One shortcoming – edge enhancement. While not as egregious as on some other Fox Blu’s, it’s still here and ugly when it rears up to plague fine detail, casting annoying halos around background detail. Fox offers us nothing by way of an audio upgrade. We get the same 5.1 Dolby Digital track that accompanied the DVD release, mostly serviceable as well as to preserve the limitations of vintage 80’s recordings, lacking bass, though otherwise quite acceptable. Extras have all been ported over from the DVD and include 3 featurettes detailing various aspects of the film’s production and deleted scenes.  Bottom line: recommended for content. This one’s a lot of fun. It could also look a lot better with a new remaster in 4K. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

3.5