The Jewel of the Nile (1985) Review

Joan Wilder is abducted when on a trip along the Nile and her now boyfriend Jack Colton must try and rescue her as well as the jewel!

⭐️⭐️

The relationship between Jack and Joan had been a little bit strained only six months after it had all started despite having a good life and with the yacht, it was all a little bit too easy and boring for them. This is when Joan accepts the invitation to go with Omar Khalifa who wanted her to write his biography. This was something Jack was truly against as did not trust him at all, it turns out he was write when Joan finds out that he is a brutal dictator rather than an enlightened ruler. Jack then finds himself teaming up with Ralph who was against him six months prior to this, as they attempt to find Joan and the jewell, or what the jewell actually is.

I did a double header of Romancing the Stone and then The Jewel of the Nile the sequel and going from loving the first film to feeling a little let down by this one, mainly because I had higher expectations. I felt it was only half as good hence the two star rating, which I guess feels a little bit harsh but that was the way I decided to rate it as it was not on the same level as the first film.

Unfortunately this one is just lacking the action and adventure of the first and considering the romance is a little bit downplayed as it seems to end and then start up again it just did not capture the same level of enjoyment as Romancing the Stone. I guess this was not really unexpected and sometimes sequels just don’t work out in the same way. An interesting fact was that Kathleen Turner did not want to make this film due to a money issue over the first film and that she did not like the script but this was stopped when Fox filed a $25 million dollar law suit against her!

Michael Douglas is still charming and Kathleen Turner is still decent but the actual plot and story that is the film was just a little dry and disappointing. I guess we cannot expect everything to be on the same level all of the time. Danny DeVito also had a slightly bigger role in this one.