A quick note: This column went to press before the abysmal reviews for 'Fool's Gold' started showing up... if what the critics are saying is true, you'll definitely want to stick with the older flick this time around.

They say you can’t please everybody, but if you’re Hollywood, sometimes it pays to try.

Take this week’s release Fool’s Gold, for instance. The movie, which stars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, is half romantic comedy, half treasure-hunt action/adventure – think of it as the cinematic equivalent of those chocolate-covered potato chips you can buy at the candy store in the mall (though ingesting a print of Fool’s Gold would probably be a little less damaging to your arteries and digestive system).

It’s not an easy combination of genres to pull off, but it has been done before; and when things align just right – a skilled director, a fun but not brain-dead script, a solid star pairing, etc. – the results can be both hugely entertaining and highly profitable. After all, what other kind of movie can satisfy both the sappy types and the adrenaline junkies in the audience at the same time?

We’ll see if Fool’s Gold has that special something, and if McConaughey can generate the sparks with Hudson that he didn’t with his Sahara co-star Penelope Cruz. If so, the movie might end up being a worthy update of its obvious inspiration: Robert Zemeckis’s 1984 action/rom-com Romancing the Stone.

Less dated than you might think, the Kathleen Turner/Michael Douglas blockbuster – like Zemeckis’s subsequent film, Back to the Future – is a classic of the VHS era, a high-concept crowd-pleaser that prioritizes pure entertainment value over pretty much everything else. It’s a movie that promises romance, action, and comedy, and actually delivers on all fronts without ever seeming like it’s laboring too hard to do so.

Turner, far removed from her sexy star-making performance in Body Heat, plays mousy romance novelist Joan Wilder, highly successful writer of racy adventure stories that presumably set old ladies’ hearts all aflutter. Her own personal life is far less steamy and dramatic, aside from some concerns about her sister (Mary Ellen Trainor), who’s gotten caught up in some intrigue in Columbia. Things finally turn exciting for Joan when she receives a treasure map in the mail from her recently murdered brother-in-law – and is then contacted by kidnappers claiming they’ll kill her sister if she doesn’t fly down to Columbia and return the map to them (don’t ask me why she couldn’t just stick it back in the mail).

Down in Columbia, Joan ends up stranded in the jungle thanks to some unfriendly locals and the machinations of two distinct sets of bad guys: the bumbling American kidnappers (Zack Norman and Danny DeVito) and a villainous local named Zolo (Manuel Ojeda) who commands a private army of henchmen. What’s a rich, uptight girl from Manhattan to do? Why, be rescued by a brave and dashing hero, of course – though instead she ends up with stubbly mercenary-type Jack T. Colton (Michael Douglas), a swaggering smuggler who demands she pay him to take her to safety. Of course, he eventually transforms into a pretty decent guy, Joan learns to kick a little ass of her own, and the two fall in love while seeking out the treasure and foiling kidnappers, drug runners, corrupt cops, etc.

If the plot sounds ridiculous, that’s sort of the point – the movie is quite clearly supposed to resemble one of Joan’s overblown novels come to life. What makes it work, and work well, are strong characterizations, a generous helping of zippy action scenes, and a winning sense of humor that draws from classic Hollywood romantic comedies without feeling old-fashioned. Turner and Douglas, both of whom have aged a lot since this film’s release, are a terrific screen couple, cute and charismatic and even convincing enough during shoot-outs and jeep chases and the obligatory “over the waterfall” sequence. DeVito makes a pretty entertaining third wheel, as well.

Zemeckis shows his characteristic flair for fast-moving, visually spectacular setpieces, but also gives Turner and Douglas plenty of room for playful romantic squabbling – he’s smart to recall classic screwball comedy as much as he does the Indiana Jones franchise.
Neither he nor debuting screenwriter Diane Thomas (who, sadly, passed away shortly after this film script was produced) had a hand in the quickly-produced sequel, Jewel of the Nile, and it’s inferior in almost every way.

While definitely starting to show its age a little, though, Romancing the Stone remains a pleasing and altogether harmless throwback to a simpler era when a PG-rated movie could include a visible nipple in its opening scene and a crocodile biting off a man’s arm in its finale.

It’s also a very rare example of a movie that aimed to please two very different audiences and didn’t disappoint either of them.