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Reviews
Blame It on Rio (1984)
Blame It On Rio Review
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.
Genghis Blues (1999)
A mythic tale of a musician seeking the source of a music that haunts him
Genghis Blues is a mythic tale of a musician seeking the source of a musical sound that haunts him. At the depths of his despair he re-engages with life when he hears a short-wave radio program with a singing that captures his spirit. For the next 12 years he persists in his research trying to find the source of the singing he heard. Step by step, he finds the path and this is the story of that search.
Blind since he was a young man, Pena had carved out a journeyman's career playing blues behind many leading acts in his day. But the filmmakers find Pena, a recent widower, in a state of depression and one goal in mind. Together, the producers fashion an expedition to find the source of that sound, bringing together an array of synchronous events and people that would one day make this film in a place few people would ever think of visiting. The story is troubling and dark, as is the world of Pena, but throughout this remarkable journey Pena finds the light in the eyes of others a world away. A foreigner with no sight, he wavers in his ambitious plan momentarily, but finds the courage to make the music that eluded him his whole life. This is the story of one's man's dream come true in the worst of situations, showing how the voice of the human spirit remains alive in a sound.
Holiday Switch (2007)
A woman gets what she wants for Christmas - her old life
What Holiday Switch promises it delivers in a surprisingly warm and generous way. This cable movie was shown in 2007 on Christmas Eve and Christmas Night and will be again this year. This story is entirely original, not relying on the prosaic narratives of Christmas past but creates a modern twist in our love of the material world. "Switch" uses a "what if" scenario to get us to identify with the main character in her search for material perfection. The superlative cast of actors conspire to ask emotionally loaded questions we sometime ask ourselves during this time of year: could I have done better? The production carries this off without hyperbole, so often seen in Christmas fare. The story lets the charged moments speak for themselves as one woman struggles her way back to a life she had rejected. At first, we are charmed by illusion, just as she is, but once we identify with her plight we might find an answer to a question we all asked once before on Christmas.