Michael_Elliott Blame It on Rio (1984) * 1/2 (out of 4) Matthew Hollis (Michael Caine) and his best friend Victor (Joseph Bologna) take their 17-year-old daughters on vacation to Rio where all sorts of trouble happens. Matthew, going thru a dried up marriage, falls to the seduction of his friend's daughter (Michelle Johnson) and soon the affair is going to have all sorts of people in trouble. Had this movie been made in the 1970's then it would have been a serious look at a troubled situation. Since it was made in the 80's it has been turned into a rather idiotic sex comedy and one that is pretty awful with the exception of a few things that keep it moving. The non-stop nudity is pretty shocking even by the 80's standards but the only thing more shocking is the fact that Stanley Donen directed this thing. Yes folks, the man behind SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, CHARADE, ON THE TOWN and FUNNY FACE also made this thing and it's clear this type of comedy just wasn't his thing. The entire picture is just so uneven that it's hard to really follow any of it and the attempts at humor just aren't funny and instead come across as rather creepy. I'm going to overlook the subject matter of a man sleeping with his friend's teenage daughter but there's a scene on the beach where the girls are topless and they come up to their fathers in a way, which was just kinda sick to watch. The film has gained a rather notorious reputation over the years due to all of the nudity and especially that by Johnson. I'm not going to lie, she looks amazing and her nude scenes certainly help keep the picture going but at the same time her performance is pretty bad, but this here is to be somewhat expected. She was just 17-years-old when this movie was made so think about that. Caine turns in a pretty bad performance as the father and it appears that he's rather uncomfortable throughout the entire film. Yes, the character is supposed to be uncomfortable with the situation but I really do wonder if Caine was nervous or didn't like the idea that he was actually messing around with an actress who wasn't yet at a legal age. Bologna is good in his supporting role as is Valerie Harper and there's also a young Demi Moore. BLAME IT ON RIO is a really stupid movie that adds up to a big fat zero in regards to its story. It's not funny. It's creepy at times and it just doesn't work.

dfiscaletti8 Blame it on Rio was a different movie, to say the least. I think the movie industry was going crazy being the Hayes code was recently lifted so they were having fun with anything that would have violated it. The movie did not have much of a story at all, a basic she loves him he doesn't love her back idea, but there was no depth. It seemed to focus on sex and nudity. Although there was an overuse of showing topless women the art in the movie was beautiful. There were so many bright colors with intense detail; everything from the beach scenes to the kitchen in the house were so illustrated. I am not exactly sure where the film was shot, but wherever it was could definitely pass for Rio. I actually found the movie itself annoying though because Michelle was portrayed as an over emotional and naïve (some may call a typical teenage girl) and I did not like this. It is very unrealistic for an 18 year old to run around topless in front of her father and then have sex with his best friend who is also her best friend's father and a man she refers to as her uncle. Meanwhile Victor, Michelle's father had been sleeping with his best friend's wife, this is also very unrealistic. Even though the story line was a disappointment the actors did play their role very well and did not break character. I would not say this movie was particularly good, but the situation the characters were put in was somewhat interesting which is why I was able to make it through the entire movie. I would in no means recommend this unless it met some type of criteria for an assignment or research etc.

Bou Wow, this was bad. Unbelievably so, given the writing credits, given Bologna and Caine, and given the fact that this was helmed by one of my favorite directors: two of his films are in my Top Ten to take to a desert island. I couldn't figure out even that this was supposed to be a comedy until I was maybe halfway into it. No comedy, black or otherwise, is supposed to keep the viewer guessing for half the film whether this is the genre That's a big clue that it just doesn't work.I see that Michelle Johnson was nominated for a Razzie, and she certainly deserved it, although Donen's the one really at fault here. He certainly seems to have lost his mind with this casting, the actress's most noticeable assets being located between her neck and her navel, and her greatest talent apparently her willingness to show them. Again, the atrocious performance by the female lead is Donen's fault (and is it any wonder that this was his last cinema release?), since Ms. Johnson was a mere 17, fresh out of high school and signed up to be a model. Her status as a minor just adds to the overall creepy quality of this film.I've nothing against age-gap romance on film or in real life, but I do have something against minors used in this way for a film, and I also have something against the "comic" plot of the hook-up of a man with his good friend's daughter, whom he has known since birth and is his daughter's friend. Yes, this situation has been seen, more or less, in cinema both before and since, but not in this chuckle-chuckle buddy-film sort of way, and the others I've seen have higher values of every sort. Caine's character takes advantage, utterly ignores his own daughter (Demi Moore is wasted here), lies to his friend, and commits adultery, and we're supposed to find it all very nutty and funny.The plot twist near the end did take me by surprise---contrived though it was---but even then I don't think I smiled once. What an icky, icky film.

Bento de Espinosa I am Brazilian and there aren't many foreign movies shot in Brazil that I like. This one is really an exception. It's well made and very, very funny! Apart from some obligatory clichés (which I actually found made the film even funnier), like the many macaws everywhere on everybody's shoulder, people on the beach embraced with apes and women there running in topless, all actors are very good and there is a joke on almost every line.It's a movie for a good and relaxed time that really makes you stand up right away, drive straight to the airport and catch the first flight to... Rio de Janeiro!