Reviews

I enjoyed it a lot because I was moved and it captured some of the madness, the warmth, the dignity and of course the sexiness of Rio. The characters were well acted, the humour was effortlessly funny and there is a storyline. However, you have to to pay attention to follow the cuts between story lines, it's a one bottle job not two. There was no dark side in this film, it capitalises on the positive qualities of Rio - after all it is a comedy. Couldn't help feeling there is kind of lazy morality about showing gun toting teenagers as defenders of the peace - how do you know that? There is no mention of the police and their role. There is a lot of travelogue and middle aged angst, maybe that's partly why i enjoyed it. Be warned if you are younger and/or haven't been to Rio give it a miss. If you aren't - watch it then go to the Rio!

It promises to be "meaningful" but ends up being lame. The cinematography is lovely, the acting is great but the story is thinner than a thin thing - god fearin' folk killing teenagers - is there any other sort? Then the FBI arrive to kill the God fearin' folk because their behaviours apparently qualify them as "terrorists" winning the prize of shoot them on sight. Ho, hum. It tee'd me off because I did not read a review before I went and then to read afterwords the glowing abstractions that bore no resemblance to what mattered i.e. the story. In this case the story was not there, it was fortune cookie idea spun into a nasty but well filmed experience, no honesty, no heart, just a God fearin' money making machin'. Yeeh hi, time to go to the bank and plan my next money sucking piece of visceral dishonesty.