Who payed the critics

Purely Joyful Movie!

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I really don't connect with this film. I saw it during my raging hormone years, and back then it was a cheap thrill. Watching it now with a more mature mind I can't really see the attraction. I guess if you get married young, are a middle-aged male whose been married to the same person for a number of years, you may have felt you've missed out on life somewhere along the line. For any males viewing this, guess what, you haven't.To me this seems like a Shakespearean kind of play with a happy ending, in that no one dies or gets burned at the end in spite of all of the bed hopping. Still, not really my kind of film. The characters are a little one dimensional in a sex comic kind of way, but it is an entertaining watch all the same for what it is.The young girl with stars in her eyes finds herself attracted to an older man. Not really a match made in heaven, and repercussions resound. All in all kind of a strange film for what it is, really. Kind of light hearted in tone, but I can't imagine real people being as forgiving. In that way it seems rather, well, just crazy.But, like I say, at least the theme song is okay. Well shot, respectably acted, if you're a divorcée, then this might or might not help you get through the night.See it once.

Why would anyone review a 26-year-old film I saw long ago? At the time the film came out I was nearly Michael Caine's age and shared many of his mid-life frustrations about marriage and certainly enjoyed the fantasy about having an affair with a young woman my junior in exotic Rio. Over the past two decades things have changed. First, this movie would not have been made today, given Hollywood's Puritanical shift to the dark ages on a flat earth. Second, Blame It On Rio features what many current comedies do not offer: deep belly laughs well into the third act. Thirdly, movies are judged by ticket receipts today and not by laughs or remembered lines. Blame It On Rio exudes all that the movie was intended to convey. Sadly for Michelle Johnson, who received a Razzi Award for worst actress that year, she was unfairly judged by the Puritans and feminists. She played the part of a young seductress who tingled with run-away hormones, gorgeous loins and breasts; she was an entirely authentic mermaid capable of seducing any male of age and taking him into the surf. I was in Rio recently, and yes, spells endure in this marvellous city because of a special magic that Blame It On Rio managed to catch.

I should rate this higher than I did. The mainstream critics have bashed it like it was written and directed by the devil himself. The main idea of an 18 year old daughter seducing her Dad's best friend (practically in front of HIS daughter) while on a family vacation, is clearly creepy. But it is written as pure comedy and played for laughs. That takes some of the sting out of it. And........the scenery, and I mean all the scenery, is fabulous. Caine and Bologna (an acquired taste) stumble and stammer thru some funny dialog, and no one was injured during the filming of this movie. Well, possibly the insanely gorgeous Michelle Johnson's career. She was in her 1st film and asked to display her assets early and often. And she looks GREAT!! As pretty an 18 year old as you will ever see on film. But she had no acting skills and came off as such an amateur that I would "Blame I On" the director. It may have been hard to do retakes to get it right, or he would have killed Michael Caine in the process.If you don't mind tasteful nudity of a tasteless situation, a typically grating cameo by Valerie Harper and the most colorful and lush view of Rio ever, take a watch. On edited TV its a 3, on cable it's a 6 or 7!!

Michael Caine simply never gets asked about his involvement in this film and that is a shame. In his career he has had limited success in comedies but this is the exception. Caine and Bologna make a terrific double act and I laughed myself stupid from start to finish.Admittedly the concept is rather weak but it is carried off brilliantly. Bologna steals the film for me with his protective father routine and is a joy to watch. The inclusion of just a few other cast members is very clever with each one delivering killer lines as the plot unfolds. The best scene in the film is when Caine employs a woman to use her skills in the occult to make his desires go away. One of the very best comedies I have seen . One tip if you like the film buy it on DVD as it is very rarely shown on television.