In the sequel to Romancing the Stone, we start off on a ship. No attempt at realism here. Definitely on a Sound Stage. Jack (Michael Douglas) and Joan (Kathleen Turner) are fighting off pirates that for some reason look straight out of Mad Max.
Then cut to "reality." Joan and Jack are actually living it up on a yacht. In the last movie, they had planned a romantic year of sailing around the world. And here they are, off the coast of the French Riveria, six months into the trip. She's typing her latest novel, but this time, instead of thinking her "pure cheese" writing is good, she recognizes just how horrible it is, and throws her typewriter overboard.
It seems like an ill omen for the sequel, as what was lauded and applauded in the first movie might now be seen with sober clarity in the sequel. The stuff she writes is shite, and maybe it's also the movie admitting its store is shite.
The sequel was rushed into production after the original film did better-than-expected at the box office. Lewis Teague took over from Robert Zemeckis as director, but unfortunately, he was a step down... his highest rated film on IMBd: Cat's Eye (1985) with a 6.3/10 score.
Anyway, Joan is having a crisis. She finds that she doesn't want "romance." She likes to write about it, but she likes to live in the real world. She finds herself bored sailing around the world, and it doesn't help that she can't write on a yacht. She wants to return to New York and her routine. Jack, meanwhile, is completely content. He already has plans for them to sail on to Greece.
Enter Omar (Spyros Fokas), leader of an unspecified north African country. He wants Joan to come with him to his country to write his biography. This sounds like just the change Joan is looking for. Biography is reality-based. What she doesn't know is that Omar specifically picked her because she's great at writing romance, and he wants his biography to present him in a specific way -- how he wants to be seen by his people, not necessarily how he really is.
Joan eventually learns that Omar is not what he seems. But by then, she is "trapped" in his country. Jack and Ralph (Danny DeVito) are on their way, as they are now hoping to find the jewel of the Nile. This is something of a plot incongruency. Omar seems to be the leader of a desert country (the movie was filmed in Moracco), but not Egypt. There's not one river scene, and never any mention of the Nile River.
In fact, the "jewel" turns out not to be a jewel.
Omar's character is interesting, as he represents the lengths a "politician" will go to create an image for himself. His PR team includes Joan, the romance writer, but he also hires a Rock Concert specialist to help promote his political events. In his major speech at the end, Omar rises like a Phoenix strategically placed fire around the stage. The crowd is mesmerized by his presentation, just as he wants them to be.
By this point, Omar has shown his true colors, and the lives of Joan and Jack are in peril. Fortunately, Ralph is there to accidentally save them, Jack proposes, and Joan accepts.
To be honest, all the reviews I've read say that this film is a step down from Romancing the Stone. I actually liked it a little bit better. Not that it's overly realistic, but I liked that they played with the idea of realism. DeVito's part in this film is more robust, although he still doesn't have much to do, and some of his lines are horrible: "Your ass is grass, and I'm the lawnmower," and "I'm a Cumquat from Queens."
I started thinking about Kathleen Turner. Her look is similar to Lauren Bacall, but she isn't Bacall. I can't quite explain what she's missing, but her film career may have peaked in the 80s...
Final thought: Many of the "Arabs" in the movie were played by white actors. Maybe it's not super-noticeable, but I noticed. Usually they were background players "hidden" in turbans and Arab dress... but still. The "Africans" seemed to be real Africans, thought, and in the credits this is noted with the dancers being from the Senegalese Dance troop -- although some of the "music" in some of the scenes is pure Western 80s...
Rating: 3/5 stars
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