An energetic but uninspired sequel to Romancing The Stone, itself a sexy reworking of the Indiana Jones formula. Minus Robert Zemeckis’ confident directorial hand, the adventures of adrenaline-junkie couple Jack and Joan comes across lightheaded and silly. Part of the problem lies in the fact Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner are already a couple at the start of the movie thus removing the exciting if inevitable movie-trait of the lead pair becoming involved. You can see how hard the new screenwriters and makeweight director Lewis Teague are trying to re-concoct former — splitting up the pair for much of the film, spinning the grab-the-ruby designs of the original on their head to have the ‘jewel’ of the title be a local mystic — but it seems to fall flat, and ends up with gags about DeVito riding a camel.
The action again manages to fuse both slapstick and peril to reasonable effect (especially a high speed reworking of that old train routine) with Douglas, Turner and DeVito proving, again, a likeable set of movie stars. But this wildly careering adventure feels forced where Zemeckis romp felt sweaty and real, its handle on the Middle Eastern people trite and foolish, where the Stone’s South American jungle felt strange and threatening. You can even boil it down to the theme song, Eddie Grant gave the first movie a revved up reggae rip-snorter, whereas here Ocean just delivers an insipid closer. It’s pleasantly watchable as many weak movies can be, but the lack of a third adventure speaks volumes of an exhausted idea.