DVD Talk review of 'Romancing the Stone' (Blu-ray)
 

I read Jeffrey Kauffman's DVD review of Romancing the Stone at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=35138 and...

I have a question. In the movie, there are sections where the characters speak Spanish. In theatrical prints, there are subtitles whenever they speak and there are some pretty substantial jokes made.

For example, when DeVito's character denies he is American and says he hates americanos, he spits on them. The bad guy responds in Spanish "You must be French" which appears as a burned in subtitle.

On at least some of the subsequent DVD releases of this movie, the subtitles are missing and therefore, so are the jokes. Are these subtitles on the Blu-Ray version of the movie?

Hi, Sherm, there are at least some subtitles--I clearly remember there being subtitles during the Spanish segment with the druglord and his henchmen. I'm pretty sure the "you must be French" is there, too. I'll try to go back and check for you and report back, but I have some other reviews (including "Jewel of the Nile") that I need to get to first.

Nice review, but I strongly disagree on two points. First, I don't feel it's a film you can return to again. I hadn't seen it since the mid-80's. Which meant, of course, VHS. Anyway, I did enjoy it the first time I saw it. But watching it last night for the second time ever after all these years, it just felt horribly dated, and just wasn't a good experience for me. I found the pacing to be very slow and it has that awful 80's background music so many films during that era had. Second point I disagree with on this review. The BD picture quality. It's just o.k., at best. I'm sorry, I'm tough on blu-ray pictures. And I know most older films will probably never be outstanding. But honestly, this picture looked like it could have been that dreaded VHS I watched so many years ago. I hear people say all the say "it's the best the movie will ever look" when describing an older movie on BD. But is that good enough? If you're going to pay a few bucks more for a BD, over the SD, and the picture is almost identical, then no, it's not good enough. This was gripe with the recent "L.A. Confidential" BD. Both the same time newly realeased SD and BD had almost idential PQ's. Unforgiveable in my book.

Re: DVD Talk review of 'Romancing the Stone' (Blu-ray)
 

Sorry to dig up this old thread but I was just watching my Special Edition dvd of the film and I noticed the joke when the guy says "The Joan Wilder? The famous novelist??" and then he tells the other banditos in Spanish that it's Joan Wilder whose books he reads them on Sundays. There used to be subtitles for this joke and on my dvd there is not. What's really annoying is that in the special features on the dvd they have a section where the actors talk about their favorite scenes in the film. Kathleen Turner mentions this scene and they show the clip while she describes it and the subtitles are there !!!!!

Does anyone with the Blu-Ray know if this subtitle has been restored?? Thanks!