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PSA: both Romancing the Stone AMD Jewel of the Nile are on Hulu
The original NYT review of Romancing the Stone called it “elaborately produced, mostly charmless.” https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/30/movies/screen-romancing-the-stone-action-comedy.html
The reviewer criticized Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglass for lacking screen appeal
The real takeaway here is my GOD look at that ad stack
It’s got an 84% at Rotten Tomatoes out of 50 reviews, so the NYT was an outlier. Ebert liked it!
This same NYT reviewer HATED the Exorcist when it came out
HE ALSO HATED ROCKY!! Called it a “sentimental little slum movie.” https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/22/archives/film-rocky-pure-30s-makebelieve.html
He ALSO hated Alien https://www.nytimes.com/1979/05/25/archives/screen-alien-brings-chills-from-the-far-galaxya-gothic-set-in-space.html
Wikipedia has helpfully collected many of the other now-beloved films he reviewed negatively including The Godfather Part II.
Anyway, this was a beloved film from my childhood, and rewatching it was a pleasant way to pass some hours as everything else grows more tense and anxious. The same is probably true of most of the films in this thread, regardless of whether Canby liked them or not at the time.
