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This review refers to "Jewel of the Nile" DVD edition(20th Cent Fox)....

If you loved "Romancing The Stone", and can hardly pass the TV without stopping to watch when it's on, then go ahead and follow the adventures of Jack, Joan and Ralph in Africa in "Jewel Of The Nile". It may not stand up to the repeated viewings like RTS, but it is a fun and action packed sequel, and it is the characters that we have come to love, that make us want to watch them in action in a new and different story.

Joan(Kathleen Turner) and Jack(Michael Douglas) have been living together on his boat for six months already. Jack wants to take off and see the world, Joan has a bit of a writer's block and wants more from life. Opportunity knocks on her door when a powerful Sheik wants her to write his story. She's wisked off to Africa, leaving a brooding Jack behind, and immediatley finds herself in the midst of a mysterious, intriguing and very dangerous situtation involving an all powerful "Jewel". But have no fear, Jack is warned of the danger his beloved is in and is off to save her. Ralph( Danny DeVito),who has been lurking about and hears the word "Jewel" is not going to be left out this time, and tags along as well. An added bonus to this one are the fabulous Flying Karamazov Brothers juggling troupe, who jazz up this film a little with their entertaining skills.

I probably would go a little higher then 3 stars if I was just rating the film, but I was a bit disappointed in the DVD transfer(especially compared to RTS). It didn't seem like much care went into it. The film is presented in widescreen, which is really nice, and takes in all the action and scenery nicely, and even the colors were nice and bright, but the print was below average for a film of this age(1985). It seemed grainey at times, and I often noticed scratches and even dirt. Good sound in Dolby Surround, but with all the action and adventure in this film, DD5.1 would have been great.
The film may also be viewed in French and has subtitles in English and Spanish.

Fans of the first film, will certainly enjoy spending more time with the gang, but may want to consider renting it first, if you haven't seen it yet.

Get the Popcorn ready, and maybe some lemonade..it's a hot trek through the desert!...enjoy...Laurie

newer edition together with romancing the stone:Romancing the Stone / Jewel of the Nile

This is a great classic Michael Douglas film. It looks the best it ever has on the blu ray format. The picture quality isn't as good as other blu ray movies from the same era, but it is much better than the dvd version. So if you are a fan of this movie definitely pick up this version.

Just about everyone who orders this title has seen it before. So this is in regards to Video quality. If you must own the movie fine then by all means purchase it but be warned the DVD movie quality is atrocious. I must have about 100 movies now and of course you do expect some dropouts and scratches on older titles but this one really takes the cake in my opinion. This copy is littered with dropouts " small white specs" , scratches and well just a plain dirty rendition of a superb movie. I have no clue why a DVD production house would allow something this bad to go into mass production unless they just believe that Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner fans will buy anything with them in it. I was beginning to believe that when you purchased a DVD you were getting the absolute best that these companies could offer. NOT SO, It appears that the bottom line is still about making a profit. Sadly enough its the consumer that ends up flipping the bill. The intros and menus are top notch superb DVD quality. And it starts out ok but gets prgressively worse. Honestly guys this movie could have been mastered from a better copy instead... well for us Douglas Turner fans a complete and sad letdown.

I blinked and missed the eighties, too busy working and raising kids. So I picked this up, along with "Romancing the Stone," in the nineties, and caught up!

A cheezy, but classy, brace of time capsules.

Rarely does a sequel to a smash movie rise to the same level as its predecessor - but perhaps Jewel of the Nile is the exception (along with some of the Indiana Jones follow-ups).
This sequel to Romancing the Stone, a rip-snorter adventure/romance with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas, set the stage for this 2nd one. They've been together since the end of the 1st movie, living on his yacht. She is on assignment in the Middle East when she's abducted, and it's up to Douglas and of course Danny DeVito, to rescue her.
Good stuff, but not quite 5-star.

It's been six months since we last saw Jack T. Colton (Michael Douglas) and Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner), who in the interim have been making their leisurely way around the world on the sailing yacht Jack bought with the money he got from selling the giant emerald El Corazon. Unfortunately familiarity has begun to breed, if not contempt, at least frustration, which isn't helped by the fact that Joan is suffering severe writer's block; apparently living a romance isn't conducive to writing one. When a flamboyant Arab (Spiros Focas) invites her to write his biography, she leaps at the chance--not only is he attractive, but she thinks it may be time for her to move on to more serious efforts. But Omar turns out not to be what she thinks, and Jack, joined by their rather inept nemesis Ralph (Danny DeVito) from Colombia, sets out to rescue her. Meanwhile Joan has discovered that the "jewel of the Nile" that everyone (including Ralph and, to an extent, Jack) is looking for is in fact a desert holy man (Avner Eisenberg) who is also a prisoner of Omar's, and the two of them have contrived an escape. With plenty of humor and wild action, and a great turn by the Flying Karamazov Brothers as five Sufi warriors, this is a fun variation on both romance and action movies that owes at least a tip of its hat to Indiana Jones.

The two movies for a nice set. Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, in that order, are fun to watch. You don't need to be a super highbrow person to appreciate the fun and to have a very entertaining time watching these flicks. That is the real bottom line here. Are you going to be entertained and feel satisfied in the end and that is a yes. That IS the point to it ya' know. We don't need intellectual enlightenment to have a good time with a movie. That is not what these two movies offer. What you do get is a good time and that is worth the price. Pop your corn, settle in, cozy up, hit the start button and enjoy. The best part, you will.

"Jewel of the Nile" is a fun follow up to "Romancing the Stone". It is not nearly as good as the orginal, but worth watching on its own merit. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner sparing, then romancing, are great to watch. The shooting locations, action and humor are icing on the cake.

I had forgotten about the movie "Jewel of the Nile" (1985) until I attended a small performing arts theater tucked into the wilderness of the Lake Region of Maine. There - in a theater that looked more like a barn than a stage -- I caught the rather amusing one-man show of Avner Eisenberg.

He did physical comedy, mostly complicated pratfalls. While perusing his biography in the program, I found this nugget: Eisenberg appeared in "The Jewel of the Nile" as the jewel.

What? I thought, is it even possible that I never watched the sequel to "Romancing the Stone" (1984)? But I had no memory of the movie -none. So when I got home, I rented it.

And it all came back to me - like a horrible nightmare.

"The Jewel of the Nile" is proof that you can't always return to the well. Because sometimes the well water turns into putrid sewage and if you drink it: you will die.

My first reaction was to track down Eisenberg and beat him with a rubber chicken.

"Jewel" is an epic disaster - a sequel so ill-thought out, poorly directed, horribly written, and featuring performances so lackluster one could argue that Michael Douglas wasn't even aware that he was in the movie. And I had seen it before - but had purged the memory from my brain.

I actually turned it off, but the next night, I was drawn back to it like a moth to a candle. The movie was so damn bad that I couldn't help myself. It's unfortunate because "Romancing the Stone" was such an unexpected pleasure. It brought a refresh to the old-fashioned romantic adventure - with some laughs thrown in.

What made "Romancing the Stone" a hit was the chemistry between Kathleen Turner's Joan Wilder and Douglas's Jack Colton. She was the repressed writer and he was the wild, roguish adventurer. The way the two actors played off each other made for a funny, delightful escape.

However, the success led to the rushed making of the sequel the very next year.

And sometimes speed kills.

The biggest problem with "Jewel" is the writing. The script is so improbable that it borders on the ridiculous. We're supposed to believe that Wilder - a bestselling romance novelist - would agree to write a biography about a Middle Eastern dictator she knows absolutely nothing about (he turns out to be a deranged tyrant).

Never mind the outrageous probability that said dictator, Prince Omar (played without irony by Spiros Focas), would even consider personally traveling halfway across the world to recruit a romance writer as his official biographer. The question viewers want answered is: "Why?" Unfortunately, there is no answer.

Then there's an attempt at a plot where Eisenberg - playing an oafish, but lovable religious leader - must be killed by the dictator so he can become the ultimate ruler of this fictional Middle Eastern kingdom before Eisenberg can be. Who this "Jewel" is and how he became a powerful religious icon is never explained. In fact, we're not quite sure what religion we're even talking about.

But forget all the plot holes and the lapses in reason that riddle the script. Hell, forget about the bloated budget and the unnecessary explosions and camel chases (but most of all forget about Danny DeVito, who delivers one of his worse performances ever).

The real problem with "Jewel" is that Douglas and Turner spend the majority of the movie separated.

Amazing, isn't it?

But how can that be, one might ask. Wasn't the success of the first movie the tit-for-tat exchanges between the actors? Wasn't it the super-charged romantic chemistry that ignited the screen the first time?

Apparently, the producers, director and writers forgot about that.

Like most of the movies we feature in Fantastically Bad Cinema - "The Jewel of the Nile" has to be seen to be believed. Just suspend any notion that you might be watching a real movie and dive into one of the most disappointing busts of the eighties.

Why not read some more literate blather at the Dark Party Review at http://darkpartyreview.blogspot.com/.

Not too bad for a sequel, but this film has absolutely none of the "magic" of the original. Everything seems forced, contrived, and artificial by comparison. As others have noted, the story ended precisely where it should have at the close of "Romancing the Stone." Too bad they did not leave well enough alone.