Romancing the Stone (1984) – In A Nutshell

Darren’s Pick

PART 1 – The Nutshell – If you haven’t seen it

A spoiler-free breakdown of this adventurous 80s classic that fuses romance, comedy, and chaos in equal measure. The team explore its irresistible tone, energetic pacing, and why its blend of adventure and humour helped redefine the rom-com genre.

Expect talk of chemistry that leaps off the screen, a leading duo that made movie magic, and how Romancing the Stone inspired decades of cinematic copycats — from The Mummy to The Lost City.

PART 2 – The Unboxing – If you’ve seen it

What Did You Miss? → The deeper themes behind the jungle mayhem — from fantasy versus reality to what the film says about love, confidence, and living beyond your comfort zone.

Paul’s Facts of the Day → The chaotic production that almost killed Back to the Future before it began, bizarre casting stories (including a dinner-table bite!), and the creative choices that turned a risky idea into a box-office hit.

Hate It or Rate It? → The hosts give their verdicts, scores, and drop Romancing the Stone into both the Legend League. Find out where this 80s adventure lands!

PART 3 – Listener Lounge

Your comments, shout-outs, and listener movie picks — plus where Romancing the Stone lands in the Listener League this week!

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Hello and welcome to Movies in a Nutshell with me, Marc Farquhar, myself, Darren.

Horn and I, Paul Day.

We help you spend less time browsing and more time watching.

If you've seen the movie, we'll reveal what you might have missed.

If you haven't, we'll give you a quick spoiler free breakdown.

We've got behind the scenes trivia including Paul's facts of the day host ratings.

And a legend league table plus your.

Chance to choose a movie.

Oh yeah, it was genius.

So part one is the nutshell where we will break the movie down spoiler free to help you decide if this time, if Romancing the Stone is your kind of film. Here we are in the nutshell. So how do we break this down for someone who's not seen it, Darren, where do we begin?

I'm not sure the terminology but it's basically a woman's romantic novel writer. Like the kind of. I remember my mother used to read this. It would be like is it Mills and Boone? Stuff like that?

Yeah, they really kind of romantic kind of fantasy books that have no real correlation with reality. And it's an author of those books who then gets pulled into the adventure of those books. Almost like she's kind of.

She's like, you know, she's living out the story of one of her own stories. Basically.

It's what I imagine her dreams would be like at night or anyone's dreams.

Or the inspiration for her stories. She's actually in it.

Yeah, exactly. And it's then it's that.

So there's all the stuff you would expect to find in those John that genre I assume having not read it where it's like a mysterious but very capable man and there's like cartoon esque villains and foreign countries and adventure and that is it really.

She kind of lives out her own book.

Yeah.

Fiction. She lives out the fiction that she normally writes. She lives in real life.

This is.

Yeah.

Indiana Jones meets When Harry Met Sally.

I think that's fair.

Pretty good.

Yeah, I think that's fair. But I also think it does a really good job of staying quite far away from Indiana Jones. But I get what you're saying kind.

Of vibes of that.

Yeah, you're getting good at these things. That's your job now. You do the meets things.

Paul, what movies does this have hints of or could it be compared to.

The other ones I put. It's kind of a fish out of water thing to a certain extent as well.

Because it starts off and it's very much like some of the other films we've looked at. Walter Mitty and what was the one we did last week? Cast Away, where you see the journey.

But obviously this time it's a female journey, which is what you said, Darren, at the end of the last one.

The word female has been destroyed by certain elements of society.

What am I allowed to do?

I don't know what we're supposed to do.

The Kathleen. Kathleen Turner story. Yeah.

The other films I thought of, one of them is a modern version of this, which I know Darren would hate and he hasn't probably seen. It's called the Lost City with Sandra Bullock. Have you heard of this?

Not heard of it.

It's Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And she's. It's very. The more I watch this one, it reminded me of that one which I saw last year. I think it's a lot dafter. It's more modern humor. It's more.

More of a spoofy thing, the other one. But it's the same sort of thing where she's suddenly living the adventure life.

So that one, you probably argue the mummies in there somewhere.

Yeah. The Mummy. I. I also put Tomb Raider, Tomb Ray, anything like that. There was a. The Solomon's Mines. I used to get this mixed up when I was a kid.

Quarter main sounds right.

Yeah.

King Solomon's Mys and then.

But those ones are more like Indiana Jones ripoffs.

Yeah. And then the other one, which is a bit of a random one, but I threw it down just in case you would. Well, I thought I'd see what you thought.

The Roger Moore Bond films.

Octopusy, the Roger.

I don't know, I just got that vibes of. Because it's kind of that bantery thing and then they're in exotic locations.

Yeah, yeah.

So I don't know why I just put Roger Moore Bond era film.

That's cool. I can see that.

I wrote down.

It's like.

It's a high energy jungle set romantic adventure that throws two relatively opposite opposites together and that's chaos, danger and chemistry. Do the rest.

Yeah, chemistry is a good word.

It reminded me, the two leads. We reminded me of the two in Spaceballs, Lone Star and the Princess actually completely like.

Yeah.

I think that's kind of why I think it's different to Indiana Jones because there's like a slapstick humor. That space. Ballsy. Or like Chaplin esque. And there's a physicality to the humor, especially with like Danny DeVito and some of his signs.

What was the TV show? Bruce Willis and Sybil.

Moonlight.

Moonlighting.

There's a bit of a moonlight and thing going on. The banter in between the. Keep forgetting the names of it. I'm very tired. It as well. What's the name of the. The film we. Oh, he's called Friday.

Oh, yeah.

That sort of banter.

Screwball comedy. Yes.

I also put down the word romp. It's a bit of a romp.

Yeah, it's a romp.

Like an action romp.

Good word. Good word. Okay, let's move into part two, which is the unboxing. So we are now in spoiler territory.

So if you haven't seen Romancing the Stone and we've helped you decide you want to go and watch it, I suggest you go and do so now. Because before, from this point forward, there will be spoilers in the unboxing. We have what did you miss?

Where we will highlight things you may have missed even if you've seen the movie many times.

Paul will give us his amazing facts of the day and then we round off with hate it or rate it in which we each give our own opinion, brief opinion, plus a score out of 10. And then this combined score ends up on our legend League. Let's go to. What did you miss? I'm gonna go to Darren because it was your choice.

Oh, that sucks. Because I did a badass job at this on the last episode on Castaway, and I did. I got nothing on this. I got very little on this because I think.

I'm not that familiar with the books it's based on, but it feels very surface level. It feels as though those books are very surface level and they don't have much going on in terms of any depth. And this is kind of the same, really.

I mean, you can argue it's about the idea the idealized version of romance doesn't exist. She is right in fantasy and I can't get over it. Also, I'd forgotten a lot of this movie.

And it's a movie I feel like I know really well, but I totally forgot in that opening western scene.

Oh, where she's doing the commentary of it, where she's actually writing it.

Yeah, absolutely. And then there's this woman in this, like, see through white top and it's all like the nest threats.

And that went on for about three years from what I remember.

You were like, get to the point here.

I was just like, no, I was just like. It was in slow motion.

The slow motion.

It was all in slow motion in my head. I was like, this is great. But I would have seen that as a teenager. And I think it really has impacted my views of romance, I suppose.

But it starts with that. And it's a very idealized. Like, Jesse is highly capable and mysterious and loves her to bits, and she's also very capable.

There's loads of people just holding out for the 100 of their ideal person. And if we're looking for inspiration for that in the media or in film or in books, we're not going to get it.

And there's this thing going around on like, tick tock where, you know, there's a lot of people reading a kind of fantasy and, you know, things like Court of Throne and Roses and things like that, and everyone's trying to get with like, Riesland or Cassian or whatever, but those people don't exist in real life. You know, you can't get.

That's where the fantasy comes from.

Yeah, exactly.

Creating what they want. Imagination, desires.

Exactly. But it's not reality, so it's. No one can live up to that. I can't live up to breaking the.

Dream telling Paul that movies aren't reality.

Stop breaking the dreams over here.

But. But then I think this movie does a good job of kind of navigating that. But. So it's about.

To a certain extent, it's about how your dreams can't come true. But actually, I'm not sure you would want those dreams to come true.

And the reality of what you get can be much better if you allow yourself to go on the adventure. Actually, I pulled that together quite well. And I think part of my.

It's almost like you've been doing this for ten months, but also four times a month.

There's an element. There's a bit. It's not really a spoiler because it happens.

Right.

Really early on.

But Kathleen Turner's character, Joan Wilder, is with her agent and they're in a bar and she's looking at all the guys in the bar and she's like, too happy, too vain. Wimp. Loser. Loser. Major loser. Too angry, too desperate. And I'm like, oh, that's like when I'm on dating apps and I'm doing the equivalent. Yes.

Tinder or Bumble and judgmental. Yeah.

Prejudice.

Yeah. So we're judging all these people because they don't live up to our ideal version so that's.

And that level is very superficial.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's kind of. But it's also, I think about what this. Honestly, I think this is a romantic film. I think it's about.

It's pretty genuine.

Yeah.

Because there's also an element of the things that if you want to attract somebody, two of the things that you need to do really early on, according to Vanessa Van Edwards, who's this person that I kind of inspired by a lot, is warmth. So can you show kind of warmth and kindness, but can you also show competence with those two things? You can kind of make an impact on people really.

If you add confidence into it as well.

Exactly. Yeah. Confidence is always coming off a day. And I said, just be confident. You choose the day of blah, blah, blah.

Well, there is that line at the end where she goes, hopeful romantic.

Yeah.

Obviously hasn't turned back off.

Yes.

Like, yeah, hopeful romantic.

Yeah.

And the saxophone kicks in.

And there is elements where I do. Part of me thinks that she just. She wrote the book, she had a drink and fed a cat and then fell asleep. Yeah.

So the reason that it was all a dream.

Yeah. I think that feels really believable because there's a lot of kind of foreshadowing going on.

Then he turns up at the end. So I know surely it wasn't a dream after all.

Yeah. But like in the opening scene with the western part, which again is. The opening scenes are not spoilers.

But he's like, are you going to die quick like a snake or slow like molasses in January? She said, but it's October and all this kind of stuff is foreshadow stuff that's going to happen early later, which would be in her dream.

Doesn't matter if it's a spoiler.

I was going to say we're in spoilers.

And then that kind of happens again. So that's all I've really got on it. Oh, Three Amigos is also what it reminded me of a little bit.

Okay, I see that I've got a different reading of it, but it's probably only going to be understood by the listeners who know about the show. It's always sunny in Philadelphia.

I've not seen that.

This is the young Frank Reynolds story.

So it does sound like the type of thing he would be up to.

That's what I thought. So have you. You haven't seen Sonny? No.

So Danny DeVito obviously plays this character in this long running show who I know the show gets up to all kinds of crazy stuff. As I was watching this, I just kept thinking, what if that was Frank Reynolds in this actual film? It made it a lot of fun to watch.

Fucking crazy.

Go on, bring it.

Kathleen Turner appears in Californication.

She does.

And she's a literary agent.

Yes.

That is good. That is.

Yeah. Paul's mind has been blown.

I like that. I like links like that. That's good.

Yeah, totally.

But the. The other bit I was going to say was kind of around Danny Devit's character, but also just in general, there's a.

There's kind of a fourth wall awareness where they look to the camera and sort of almost nodding things, isn't there, in this. It's not quite looking at the camera because she's writing the fiction and the story, but this was what I found interesting.

So I'd finished watching the film and then I watched the trailer, which was the only thing on the DVD as well as the film. And the trailer is really weird. It's got Danny DeVito on the phone to someone.

Oh, yeah, have you seen this?

Yeah. And he's like talking through what kind of happens in the film a little bit. Oh, and this happens. And that happens.

And then he turns to the camera and he goes, okay, I'll go back, but this time you're coming with me. And it sort of invited the audience into it, which, I don't know, you don't see that in trailers very often where they have a separate film for it.

That was cool. I think the other side of it, I just. I think it was really nice representation.

I think I'm reading this book at the moment called no more Mr. Nice Guy, and it's not massively relevant to me, but it's about how some guys can just only be nice and not show the less attractive parts of their personality because they're scared it's going to put a woman off and. But also because they're so nice, they have an expectation of sexual. So I say, well, why wouldn't you sleep me? I'm nice. They say, well, that's not.

Actually. That doesn't work.

Not the other way. Like two nice.

Like the bad guys.

Yeah, but it. But so it's what's interesting with. Also, this is how you introduce the character.

I mean, it's fantastic when Michael Douglas turns up and he does that amazing kind of jump in the air when he bends his knees and then lands and he's got. And you don't see him at all. And then out of the shadows and you just hear him be like, Jesus Christ, what happened to my fucking birds?

And she's just like, who is this guy? Then he looks down. He's like, hey, great. Really sweet, great introduction. But he. He immediately. Yeah, he's annoyed.

He's just lost half a year's wages on. On this adventure. But he immediately treats her as an equal. He doesn't see her as, like, a damsel in distress, even though he uses that phrase later.

He's just like, you'll cope. Like, you're out here. You're with me. Like, I've coped. And never is there the threat of, like, sexual violence.

Yeah.

Like, she's totally well and does end.

Up with his head between her legs at one point.

That was accidental, though.

I know. And I think in terms of value, he's. He's annoyed at that point, but he turns it around so quickly. Like, he loves life.

And, like, once they slide off the mountain and go flying down, he gets up and he's like, whoa, that's turned out to be one hell of a morning. Yeah. I just think. And he just goes with whatever life throws him. And he's. For me, he's a very, like, archetypal.

Say, like, the trickster or the adventurer. If you're looking at people like Captain Jack Sparrow, he's kind of got that energy.

I like him because he's not a superhero. He's got no special skills other than a shotgun, local knowledge and a bit of language.

Yeah.

He's just like an average guy.

And we've discussed it before. If you call Jack in the film.

Yeah. Superhero name, pretty cool.

That's what Jack.

He would like. Darren would like to change Jack Bauer.

Yeah. It's getting even more serious recently.

My deep hole.

Yeah. Yeah. So I think he's a really great character. And there's bits where he is genuinely kind.

Like when she finds the dead pilots, he puts his hand on her face and he's like, are you okay? She's like, yeah. And then he's like, okay.

And then immediately goes off, like, I don't think he's around women enough to be like, maybe she's not telling the truth.

Checks in, she's fine. Off he goes.

But then when the police turn up, he's like, wait, they're after you. He's like, okay, get behind me. And then he's, like, ranting about it, but he's like, no, I'm gonna die defending her.

So I think he's a really engaging, charismatic character. But also, she is like. She's. I mean, can you imagine she loves her sister so much. She's like, okay, I'm gonna come. I'm gonna come to Colombia.

Like, I've never. I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm trustworthy. And so if we go back to archetypes again, to be too filmy.

But she's totally the innocent and she is the fish out of water. And she's just going to learn about the world. Much like we were saying with Castaway, with the Universe. Just being like, you need to live your life.

Because she's a sad cat. Owning, crying, sniveling, drinking, Miniatures Woman. She's living in the clouds. She's living in her imagination.

And then the universe is like, okay, you need to go and live your life. And then she does, guys, I've got.

To go and live my life. Because I feel like I'm here at the start of this. But there is. If you take the. The differ.

The bit that stuck with me was the bit where she's getting on the bus and kind of her presence.

The wrong bus.

The wrong bus. And she's kind of nerdy and she's got all the bags and she's kind of geeky. But then flash forward in the film to the dance bit or whatever you.

Want to call it.

Oh, I love that dance scene.

But you can see the confidence in the character just in the way she presents herself.

Michael Douglas can dance.

Yeah. It's like, Douglas, is that. Do you think I wrote Gen Z. Are they gonna relate to Michael Douglas stands in there?

No, but I thought it was great.

Yeah, I did, too.

I liked him. Shoots the long hair.

He does.

Pulls you off.

You got a fact of the day about that.

Well, if you've got one, just throw it out there.

They were just socializing and Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas started dancing. And Robertson Mecca saw it and thought it was ace. Allegedly, he turned the cameras on and they didn't know. That's. I can't believe that.

Cameras would have been huge back then.

Yeah.

But I think he may have been inspired by it and being like, hey, we should put this.

Let's put that in.

And it is a really sweet scene.

Yeah.

And makes it really believable that their relationship evolves.

And she was so happy to get, like, after everything she'd been through. She got the dress. She's kind of put the confidence between there and the start is. I was like, yeah, that's the turning point, isn't it?

Obviously, she's falling for Douglas as well at the time.

And it's one of the worst theories or things about being in existence. Like, in order to grow, in order to become better versions of ourselves, we have to suffer.

True.

I don't want to suffer.

I know. I don't want to eat.

You have to fail to grow.

Yeah. You've got to put yourself on. On quests which are hopefully the right experience level.

This is a bit above her experience level, but she gets a mentor and she's kind of guided.

I read. I don't know if this is true, but the chemistry between Turner and Douglas was so strong. Carried over into Jewel of the Nile.

Yeah.

The sequel. And even inspired later films like the Mummy and Romancing the Stone's spiritual successor. Jungle Cruise.

Oh, God. I wouldn't say that, but okay, yeah, maybe Jungle Cruise.

Yeah.

I never thought that. Junk Cruise is kind of a modern, modern spin on this sort of.

Again, for me, Back to the Future vibes all over this. I mean, the music from very close to. There was some similar.

Well, this is only a few years.

Before I knew without looking at it would be Alan Silvestri, also directed by Bob Zemeckis. Again.

Well, the second opening scene, once you've done the Western, the camera moves around her apartment and it's exactly the same as the opening to Back to the Future. And even to the point when Back to your future Marty says, what time did you say it was? Dark, I'm going to be late for school.

And she says, look at the time, Romeo. Like, I'm gonna be late. And she's, oh, my God, Romeo, is that the time? And then she rushes out again and the camera movement is.

I noticed that in Castaway as well, though. Zemeckis is very scene specific with props and things, isn't he?

Like things on fridges or details in the cave or in Back to the Future, obviously, the doc's office and the clocks and all that at the start.

There's a scene at the very end where after. After it's all happened and he's at the top and he jumps off the building into the river.

Yep.

That whole scene reminded me of when Marty jumps off into the DeLorean.

Oh, yeah.

And it pops back up that just the way just. It just. It just went like that. Yeah, it's very similar. The music was very. It was just. Yeah, there's lots of bashing.

Back to the Future, even though this was before that.

You think you're a Back to the Future geek on this one.

Yeah.

But I'm seeing what you're saying, so I'm Right there with you.

Also, similarity, connection to Castaway and the way that she's plucked from civilization into survival in almost an element of that, I think.

Also, Danny DeVito just plays this amazing kind of comedic role, and I love him. I just love how much he kind of eats up the scenery. I love it when he's just ranting on the phone.

He's like, you're an embarrassment to our family, and you're a lucky son of a bitch. And he said, when you got to send back the boat soon, how soon? All of that I loved, but also, they don't meet.

Like, my memory of this movie is, it's the three of them for most of the movie. They don't meet until like an hour 20 in or something.

It's when they actually get the stone that's mine. And the best bit where I was like, oh, my God. Was when he said, we got to get out of the cave before Batman gets home.

Yeah.

Because he's the Penguin Mark, the penguins. Yeah. I think actually Michael Douglas's character, Jack Colton, he's equal parts hero and hustler.

Yeah, totally.

He blurs the lines between self interest and sincerity. Like, sometimes you don't know, there's a. There's a few moments where you think, is he. Is he a good guy? Is he a bad guy? Is he gonna turn?

Is he gonna do something?

But when the cops show up at the end, he's like, yeah, I've had a few run ins with these guys. I've gotta get out of here. Gotta go. And you're like, oh, there's the Hustler. There's the Hustler right there.

Danny DeVito's character adds, like, perfect comic chaos. Yeah, he's just. It has a good dimension to the film.

It felt a bit like the Leo gets in the Lethal Weapon films, sort of, because often they're not part of the main plot. But I suppose he is in this one. But it's still that side character, isn't it, who comes in. He's like, apparently you at the drive.

Through, it used to be roommates with Michael Douglas. That's how he kind of got the gig when they were.

Oh, I think that's on the facts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It'll.

So that chemistry is what kind of holds it together.

It's. It's proof that every movie needs. Oh, every good adventure needs a little bit of absurdity.

Do you. Have you guys. You both seen it before?

No, I hadn't seen it.

I'd seen it a while ago.

When he gets in the car with the bad villain guys, or. Or so whatever his name is, and he's like, americanos. I spit on him. I spit on him. Yeah. He then says, ah, you must be French.

I've never seen that line before.

Have you not?

It was always in there.

I think I was perplexed by that. I wasn't. I was hoping one of you guys.

Would tell me, like. Yeah, about the American. And then he's like, oh, you must be French.

But the French don't hate the Americans or didn't know.

I think it was just meant to be random.

Gave him the Statue of Liberty. Yeah, it's. It's us.

I think it was just meant to be random. I just.

I just thought it was a nice touch where there was the, like, crocodile shoes when he's on the boat at the end, like, he's obviously fought the crocodile. He's got these shoes and he's got the stone and he's got his boat. And you just see the shoes. And then she mentions them as well. Obviously.

I thought that was a nice little.

I just love. I just love what a scoundrel he is. And I love it when.

Good word.

She says she's trying to hire him, and he's like, What? She's like, $50. He's like, no.

Yeah.

And she's like, you just said you lost everything. And he's like, yeah. Not my sense of humor. And I just think, what a great line. And apparently Michael Douglas wasn't even going to be in it.

They offered it to so many other people.

I'm sure he'll tell us.

I think I got some facts on those.

All right, cool.

Okay, let's move on to Paul's facts of the day.

Okay, so we mentioned this at the end of the last episode, but let's just go back again because it links in very much with our Back to the Future obsession. So the studio executives were so sure that this film would flop.

Yeah.

Zemeckis was preemptively fired from directing Cocoon, which went to Ron Howard. But then this film turned out to be such a success that Zemeckis was then able to go forward with his own project, which was Back to the Future.

And he was a baby. He was a baby director. This is. He's.

Yeah. This was only young, wasn't it? This was a big breakthrough.

If this hadn't landed, there could be no Back to the Future potentially, or a different kind of.

Or it had been delayed and it.

Would have been the end of Zemeckis, probably this was his last chance at getting a. Like I saw, I think, with Michael Douglas talking about it.

But, you know, he done Used Cars and this other movie at 23 and at 28 and his career was over five years, he hadn't made anything. And we gave him this and he. Yeah, he did a good job.

What's that? And it's also the. We always talk about him working with Alan Silvestri. This was the first time they'd worked together.

And then ever since, obviously Sylvester, my son, his name. Right, Sylvester, he's composed the music for every Zemeckis directed film, so he's done them all.

If you got about Dean Cundy on there as well, is it.

Tell us.

He's a cinematographer on this, but I know the name because he's a cinematographer with loads of John Carpenter stuff like Halloween, the Thing, the Fog, A Big Trouble in Little China, but also this, which is why it looks gorgeous in a lot of the time. But he also went on to do Back to the Future as well.

Ah, that's probably where I recognize his name mainly from then. Yeah. Let's go on the Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito thing.

So they were roommates during their time in New York City when they started out in show business. And additionally, Danny DeVito notes that Douglas got his big.

Apparently the character was really underwritten and it evolved a lot. And then Danny DeVito got it and.

Just ran with it. Yeah, totally amazing. Oh, there we go. According to Kathleen Turner's memoir, Michael Douglas originally offered the role of Joan to Deborah Winger.

They met a Mexican restaurant to discuss it, but according to Douglas, she ended up biting him.

Wow.

So she didn't get the part. Don't know what happened there, but there you go.

Kathleen Turner once said, working with Bob Zemeckis, I remember terrible arguments with him during a Mantle in Stone. He's a film school grad, fascinated by cameras and effects.

Yeah.

And she never felt that he knew what she was having to do to adjust her acting to some of the damn cameras. Sometimes he'd put you in ridiculous postures and I'd say, this is not helping me. So it sounds like there's a bit of.

He's a technical director. He's very technical. He doesn't work that time. He didn't work with actors.

Well, there was a song by Eddie Grant called Romance in the Storm, but it didn't feature prominently in the film. There's just a guitar solo that can be heard in the background of the scene where Joan and Jack and at the house of her fan Juan.

But it wasn't even included on the soundtrack album. It was just used to. To promote it a bit, but it wasn't actually in it.

Which is surprising because they loved a good 80s tie in back in the Day, didn't they?

I like the line. The line where this movie title came from was like, I take the stone. Not you romancing it out of him or whatever.

Yeah, that's right. Okay, we've got. We've got. Who was offered the role. So we got Clint Eastwood, Kurt Russell, Jack Nicholson. And Christopher Reeve turned down the role.

I heard Burt Reynolds was considered, but.

That would make sense.

I think Kurt Russell could have done it.

I was trying to think Harrison Ford.

No, it would have been too old, too serious.

Yeah, true.

Mind you what, what you In 84, he's well in Indiana Jones. Temple of Doom.

True.

Yeah.

Which was the other film needs to be light.

Light element to the character in this.

Specifically, I was going to say Temple of Doom, especially with her at the start of the film because she's very much like Willie Scott at the start of the film from Temple of Doom, where it's like, oh my God, my luggage.

And yeah, yeah.

But the difference is in Temple of Doom, Willy Scott is pretty much like that the whole way through. Whereas Kathleen Turner, she adapts and blooms, basically, and she's.

She's always been brave. The bravery is deep inside. But she doesn't go through that much of an adventure. It's really early on when she gets to the.

What you call it, the canyon, and she's like, no, I'm going to go over the bridge. And it's like, wow, okay. That character's got depths and is able to do stuff.

A couple more alternate reality ones. So Bob Hoskins turned down the role of Ralph, which obviously went to Danny DeVito. And Zemeckis would then work with him on who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Yeah.

And Kathleen Turner, who plays John, would provide the voice of Jessica Rabbit.

Oh, yeah.

And I forgot about the Zemeckis connection there because obviously he directed. And this is an interesting one, which I didn't think about until I just read the other one about Alan.

But at one point, James Horner was asked to score the film, but he turned it down due to scheduling conflicts, which is when Alan Silvestri moved in.

That's the thing that could not have happened.

So that's like one of them timeline things, isn't it?

So if that other guy was, if that other guy was available, Sylvester would have done this.

Wouldn't have done Back to the Future, maybe James honored. I mean, James Honors got some classic scores as well. But still, it might have all sounded very, very different.

And also Jessica Lange turned down the part of John Wilder to tackle more serious inverted commas work. And also this is something that didn't happen, but it's rumored to have happened. And I'll leave you with this one.

It had been rumored that during filming, Michael Douglas was bitten on the hand by a venomous snake and Danny DeVito saved him immediately by sucking out the venom. But Michael Douglas said on the episode of the Late show with Late Night with Seth Meyers that that is not true.

So if you hear that fact, that's a false fact.

It's also written by Dan Thomas, who was working as a waitress. She was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. She wrote it actually before Indiana Jones was even written.

And it took a while, but once it went around the studios, a bidding war broke out. And you know, I saw an issue with Michael Douglas being like, you know, everyone's like, you don't pay that much for a first time writer.

And he was like, but it was that good. And, and, and then I think she was involved in maybe writing in some of Indiana Jones Last Crusade.

Okay.

But then sadly died in a car accident. So this is her only the following.

Year, it says here.

Yeah, only thing that she kind of worked on. But there's also a female writer. That word female again, there's hardly any female writers around at that point in the 80s.

Yeah, I think she's great. I think she goes through a really great. She's a stereotype at the beginning, like a Bridget Jones stereotype. Drinking, like it's like a risk.

It's a treat to have a miniature Brandy, whatever she has. And she's got a cat called Romeo and. But she's not really engaging in life. She's very timid.

And then she goes on this adventure and she learns about life and I just think that growth is great. And also, you know, the men are shown as either villainous or potentially shady. And I'm kind of. I kind of like that.

Yeah, apparently. Apparently, as a final thing, you know, we were comparing it to films like we do at the start.

There was a lot of other sort of Saturday afternoon matinee adventure films around that time. I've heard of the main ones which Raiders, the Lost Ark, Templar Doom, that kind of thing. See if you've heard any of these ones.

So there's King Solomon Mines, which mentioned Alan Quartermain, and the Lost City of Gold, which may be the one you were saying.

So there's like ban of these sort of films coming out, but obviously we remember Indiana Jones and some of the classic ones, but maybe not some of them other ones, because I haven't heard a lot, but there you go.

Thank you very much, Paul. Okay, that takes us on to hate it or rate it. We're gonna go over to the horn section because it was his choice.

Yeah. I wasn't sure to make of this. And yeah, I was nervous because obviously big trouble. Little China was a childhood love and it kind of didn't hold up.

But I had an absolute ball watching this from the opening scene. I was just like, this is great. Danny DeVito is hilarious. In every single scene that he's in, Michael Douglas is the perfect blend.

He's not, like I was saying about the normal Mr. Nice Guy. He's authentically him. He's just like, I, this is who I am. Like, this is what I want.

And then when they have that cute scene in the plane and he's dreaming, he's like, you know, he's saying, these birds, Are these worth this much? These birds are worth this much. This yacht is this much money. I love the sea. I just want to get back on the sea. And he's.

He's not a little boy, but he kind of is. There's like an innocence to him. Like he's being genuine, being himself genuine, being authentic. Yeah, he's a bit schemey, but he's.

That's his way of surviving out there, though.

Exactly. He's a get rich quick schemer. And so of course he's being a.

Bit schemey, but you don't feel like untrustworthy of him, do you?

No. His middle name's trustworthy.

That's what I was going to say is middle.

And I'm sure that's True. Because he's so trustworthy.

There's a few moments where cast doubts over him, which he has a few looks or he says a word or he disappears and he comes back. Is he.

And you know, I said that a lot of the cards guys are villainous. But I freaking love the drug dealer guy with the. He's like John Wilder. You John Wilder.

I read your books.

I read all your books.

Yeah, exactly.

It's like, you mean my little mu.

Oh, like that was just before they went, write us out of this one, John Wild.

And that's such a great pivot as well because you're like, wow, they're stuck now. And it's. It's like cliched writing in a way.

Yeah.

But you can't critique it because it's. It's.

But when you realize they're in one of her novels, basically. So it's.

Of course they're going to the Hotel Cartagena in Cartagena. Of course this villain's called that. Like he's got pet alligators.

That 80s fun.

I had an absolute ball and I laughed a lot. And their budding romance won me over from being annoyed at the whole loser, loser, loser vein, whatever, to them dancing and then their kiss.

I went back on dating apps. I was just like. I downloaded Bumble and Tinder because of this movie. I'm now coming off them again because it is hell.

But that's when a film works. At the time.

That's how inspirational it was.

I believed in love for 48 hours because of this movie.

You're hopeful, romantic.

And I love the ending. I love the bit where she's confidently walking back through the city talking to the street vendors. Just loved all of it.

And I know this is a pattern or it seems to be a pattern that it's first time filmmakers or first time writers or first time like directors or second, third time directors that's getting the highest scores from me. Like one loader one with Al and I. I wasn't going to give it a 10 mark because I know you don't like it, but I think it's a 10.

I don't think there's anything like Running man was high, but Running man had some like problems.

I'm just happy you found films that are making you happy.

Stone was just. I mean, yeah, it's got not much depth, but it's been one of those books. I had a ball. I just had a ball.

And that there's so many cool bits that I just. Particularly as a young kid. It Made me feel young again and it made me feel hopeful again and it made me feel believe in love again.

This is probably a little bit where my toxic masculinity comes through that, you know, I'm working through in therapy. That that's what my image of a guy is, you know, that he will without a doubt drinks black coffee and drinks like straight whiskey.

That's the men I, I idolized kind of growing up and I'm having to come back in therapy while I'm single. But yeah, that's a.

That's another podcast episode, right?

It is, yeah.

So we're going to give it 10. You actually give it 10?

Yeah.

Cool.

Well, it's better than money, man.

I enjoy that. No, like me and Paul just happy that you've. That's two films that you've really in.

A row and it's with Mel and I, isn't it? I'm sure I gave, didn't I? One load of one.

I think they were both there.

Near tens. Yeah, Almost up there.

I think. Hot shots. I think you love that as well. If I remember rightly. Not so much.

Okay, yeah, I'll go next. So yeah, I not. I think I enjoyed as you as much as you had. I mean I'd seen, I'd seen bits of this before. I kind of knew the basic plot of it.

But yeah, I really enjoy this. Just a good solid story. It's not trying to be anything, it's not trying to be clever. There's not too much going on behind the scenes.

It's just a good, it's a good, well written story. It does play out like one of her, one of her novels and I really enjoyed that.

And the chemistry between the characters and the actors is there and it's just got the right with the Danny DeVito in there and there's comedy elements, action elements. It's got a bit of everything. The story's good. There's a few things I picked up on. Like what was that child driving the car?

Yeah, there's like an eight year old boy driving a car like. Like a man who's been driving for 20 years.

But that apparently happens. Robert Rodrigo.

I just grew up driving.

The director, Robert Rodrigo shot. My God, what did you do before? Despado El Mariachi. And he shot it. I can't remember exactly where, but like Mexico or somewhere.

And in the behind the scenes you see kids driving around cars like that.

Oh, that's a fact. This one. The lush Colombian settings actually filmed in Mexico.

Yeah, yeah.

What was the other One. Can you just strap your wrist up after it's been bitten off by a crocodile? Just carry on.

You can win this type of genre.

Totally.

Why not?

It's a movie.

Yeah, hilarious. And you always got time for a kiss when the cops are approaching and hear the sirens, haven't you? You've always got.

That's movie time.

We just learned that in Castaway. You don't wait. You have to.

And the biggest thing for me was when he pulled up at the end in his dream boat, I'm like, oh, wait, wait a minute.

So you're telling me he jumped off the building, found in the dark the exact crocodile that eaten the stone, got the stone, killed the crocodile, skinned it, made boots out of it, obviously. Found the stone, got the stone, sold the stone, and then bought his dream boat?

Jack Colton.

I feel like in another film. Yeah, but in this film. Yeah, what you expect.

But yeah, I feel like that's the.

Sort of thing you would normally say, but then you're loving it in this one.

Yeah, totally.

But it's all about context.

Exactly. What it says to be. And it is like it was all a dream. Almost always. Like Jay from the. In between us telling the story like.

It completed it, mate.

Yeah, exactly.

And I'm. I mean, I'm. I'm. I keep going about the. The Back to the Future Sylvester thing, but it was a great. It was a great.

And the fact that this was before Back to the Future, actually, I like.

The added romantic saxophone, 80s, 80s, obligatory.

The. The story of the two of them, you know, their journey that they go on and the chaos that ensues and. Yeah, I just thought it was really good.

So I'm gonna. I'm gonna give it an 8.2.

Nice. It'd be interesting. Do you watch Jewel of the Nile? Because Jewel and I isn't written by that lady because she sadly passed away.

And it's not directed by Roberts the Mechanics either.

I want to watch it. But then I'm dubious if it's not.

Do we start off 20, 26 on doing, like, sequels?

There's a way. We've got.

We've got Back to the Future two. We've got. Well, so we've got. We've got hot shots too.

Okay, no, let's start on that one.

Alien first Alien. We've got some journeys to go on. Any sequels yet? Over to you, Paul.

I want to say I heard it 1 out of 10 just to see what Darren says, but I can't because I loved it. It's great film. It's just a fun film. Yeah, it's just a fun film.

I remember I used to get it mixed up with King Solomon's Mind when I was a kid because that's a similar sort of romp. And I can't even remember who's in that one, but it's kind of the running away from baddies and they're in the jungle and all that kind of thing.

So I used to get mixed up a bit. So it was nice. I watched it when I last watched this few years ago and really enjoyed it.

So I was excited to watch it again because I'd got it recently on DVD in a charity shop with Jewel of the Nile. So I was excited to watch it again. And, yeah, I just enjoyed it. I think Kathleen Turner's really good in it.

Oh, she's phenomenal.

So good in it. And it's just. I started researching her about it, though, because I'm like, she's 28 or something in this one.

And I was like, so how old was she when she turns up in Friends as Chandler's dad? And she was like, she was only about 42. And it turns out she'd had some kind of autoimmune disease or something.

So she'd fought with her health a bit. So maybe that's why we didn't. Because I was like, why didn't we see her in more movies over them years?

But maybe that's because she was battling with health and stuff. But no, she was fantastic. Michael Douglas. I can't think of a bad Michael Douglas film that I've seen.

Actually, all the ones I've seen him in, he's always. He's always very good. And this probably one of my favorite roles.

Oh, we did.

He was Falling Down.

Falling Down. Yeah. Yeah. And he was great in that.

Yeah.

What am I going to give it? Because I could wax lyrical. But you've both already done that, so, yeah, really enjoyed it. Danny DeVito, obviously.

And I started laughing at myself thinking about, what if this is the Frank Reynolds Untold Story?

Yeah, yeah.

So that made me laugh a bit. In that series, Mark, he gets up to all kinds of random stuff, so it's very believable that this could be him. What am I going to give it?

I'm gonna give it an 8 point. What year was it out? 84. Let's give it an 8 point. No, let's give an 8.5.

Screw it. I had still been. I still quote this movie. Like I quoted. This is. Turned out to be one. Hello. Morning.

@ times in class, when I get to the end of teaching, I have often said, joan Wilder, you and your sister can go. And all my students look at me like what? I'm like, whoa. Romance in Stone. Please watch more movies.

Do you say 8.4?

I'm gonna round it up. I'm gonna take it up. I was gonna give it four just for the the year, but I'm taking it up to five.

So this is interesting.

Go on.

Romancing the Stone has entered the Legend League in fourth place.

Wow, that's gone right there. Well, all three of us get to give it a good one there. So who's it behind?

So Jaws is first on 28.5. Back to the Future is second on 27. Run Lulla Run is third on 26.9. And Romance in the Stone is fourth on 26.7.

Then you've got Notting Hill on 26, joint with Top Gun, the original Top Gun on 26, and then with Nil and I on 25.3.

That's a lot of Spielberg and Zemeckers, Spielberg and Mecca's work together a bit.

It's very much our era, isn't it? I wonder if that's because of the age we are.

Is it just because the great movies that are timeless, that have sort of stood the test of time, or is it Anna? See, with this one, I'm not massively nostalgic about, but I still had a great time.

Yeah, because sometimes it's the nostalgia, isn't it, that pulls you back in?

Also, when we don't break out of that time frame that much.

That's true.

Like, we haven't gone. I think we maybe got one from like the 40s, one from the 50s, maybe one from the 60s.

Also. Haven't done that many recent films.

No.

Let's move on to part three, which is the listener lounge. So in part three, we have the lobby where we share your comments, we answer your questions, any messages, and then we ask our question of the week.

And we finish off by revealing next week's movie. So if you want to get involved with us here, you can send us a voicemail by going to Movies in a Nutshell Dot com.

There is a voicemail button on there. Send us a message. You can. If you're on your phone, it'll just open up your voice recorder. It comes straight through to us.

You can email us hello atmoviesinnutshell.com. and the links to our socials are in the show notes. We've not got much this week. Because we've time and things.

But Ryan Hogarth has obviously been listening to the Running man and he's. He's got a. Meets. Well, not necessarily meets. He's put. It's like Running man is like Robot wars but with humans. I can see that anyone's in Robot.

Wars, the old TV series where they used to smash each other and think.

Yeah, it's like real steel, but with humans.

Real steel with humans.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I still haven't seen real. Still. It's meant to be good, though.

Oh, it's phenomenal.

Yeah, yeah, I've got it. I've got it. The bookcase. Ready to watch.

But if you've got. If you guys have got any. If you. Catching up on our episodes.

Anything you want to say, any messages, questions, send them in and we'll read them out on the show. So, question of the week this week. I usually. Sometimes we keep it tied in with the movie, but I think we're going to abandon that now.

We're just gonna. If you can think of a good question, we're gonna say it. So a film you love, but everyone else seems to hate, we'll still film.

I love that.

I haven't actually.

A lot of these.

I haven't had a chance to think about this one yet, but it's interesting.

I feel like there's a lot of these.

Well, you watch it. He goes, yeah, I really enjoy that. And I was. You look at the reviews. There's terrible reviews, this film. But I enjoyed it most. And I don't care.

Darren's thinking, it's not a guilty pleasure. I don't. It's not a guilty pleasure. Sure.

There's. There's one. I mentioned the other week that I quite enjoyed it when I watched it, and everyone.

Well, critics hated it and people hated it, and everyone seemed to hate. It's called Downsizing with Matt Damon.

Oh, yeah.

And it was kind of sold as a bit of a jaunty comedy, but it wasn't. So I kind of enjoyed it because it basically goes on a journey where. Journey of.

It doesn't really matter how big you are, you go on this Huffle journey. But the way it was sold in the market and was very much like, oh, it's a comedy thing. So I can see why people hated it.

But I quite enjoyed it because I got what they were trying to do.

Maybe like Alien versus Predator. That gets shit on more than it needs to be.

Like it?

Yeah. It was a slasher movie with the alien and the Predator. It's like Hunting teenagers instead of Michael Myers or, like, Freddie. Like. Or Jason.

What's not to like? You got to take it. You got to forget about the other Alien movies, but as a standalone movie.

It'S freaking like Rogue One.

My Rogue One's a masterpiece.

Yeah, but it's standalone. Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm gonna throw Howard the Duck in the mix. Let's face it, most people hate Howard the Duck, but I. I enjoy how the duck.

I love a movie called Men at Work with Charlie Sheen. Emilio Estebaz.

Yeah, I've not seen that.

It's just Dustman. It's funny. Garbage disposal man.

This is gonna be a hotshot situation. I think it's hilarious. And he's like, no, probably didn't like it, but there you go.

I might just pick it one week just for that, if that's going to be the case. Anyway, that is this week's question of the week. A movie that you. You love but everyone else seems to hate.

Okay, that takes us on to the main event, next week's movie. We have no clue where Mr. Paul Day is going to take us.

It depends.

We could probably bully him into a certain direction.

Well, he already kind of has on a text the other day, so. But every time it's my choice, I end up bullied in a certain direction. Like, you just picked this one, Paul. Okay, Stay strong, Paul.

You choose what you want to choose.

Well, I had one pick that I know you're probably gonna hate, but I liked it. But then, do you want to go retro 80s?

I don't mind. You can. This is your choice, Paul. You can do whatever you want.

Right. Well, I'm gonna shelve the one that I was gonna pick for now.

No, go with what you want.

You're gonna hate it.

It doesn't matter.

No, because I want to pick this one before anyone else does. Because when you put it on the text, I'm going for. And I'm picking it before any you two does.

And I'm sorry, it's another 80s film, so I'm not mixing up very much. I'll mix it up after this choice. Why do I always try and thingy my choice? And you two are just like, boom, that's what I'm having.

I'm going to go for this film because this is probably the one I've seen the most when I was a kid, recorded it on vhs. Wore it out pretty much. Some guys get together. I'm making this sound really bad now. And Hunt goes. I'm going to say Ghostbusters oh wow.

Let's do Ghostbusters.

Why would you think I would hate Ghostbusters?

No, the other choice I was going to pick that'll come in a few weeks time.

I keep seeing the Frighteners come up and I can't keep thinking, oh, I like that. Fighting us.

I never heard of it. Never heard of it.

It's Michael. It's kind of like Ghostbucks. There's Ghostbusters but Michael, Michael J.

Fox, Fox and Peter Jackson directly.

He's in it, on it with the ghosts.

Yeah, Ghostbusters.

Is it 84?

I think it's 84.

Yeah.

Classic.

I'm gonna go for that.

I've not seen this for a long, long time. Please hold up, please.

You mentioned it in something the other day and I was like, you know what, I want to pick that before anyone else does because that was my first when I was a kid. Well, it's gonna for me because I probably watch it a few times.

25 packs of the day for Ghostbusters locked and loaded.

You can do that.

We'll do the whole let's have a Darren's. Darren's facts of the day.

Yeah, let's do that. I'll have a rest. That's all good. I probably got more as well.

Looking forward to that. So thanks for listening guys. Really do appreciate you guys listening every week as you do.

So if you want to help us here, the best thing you can do is share the show.

Hit the share button in whatever app or platform you're listening or little things like give us a rating in review for this thing, Spotify or Apple podcasts or where you are. If there's a possibility you can hit subscribe or give a rating out of 5. Whatever it is, please do so. It really helps the show.

Also where you're listening from. I don't know where people are listening from. I know the stats tell us where people are roughly country wise. But where exactly are you listening from?

And if you've not got in touch with the show, maybe this could be your first time.

Well, like they're in the car.

No. Which country?

Let's just check. I'm in Texas in the car.

I'm in Workington. Yeah, I'm in Texas.

You know where they're from then?

Yeah, pretty much. But I want people to say hello, we listening from such and such. So yeah, let us know where you're listening from.

But as far as that goes, this episode is officially over. This is Mark saying goodbye.

And down saying goodbye for now.

Yeah, that's what I call a campfire.

You don't say it with the right voice.

Well, what voice do you want me to say?