Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Blame It on Rio Blu-ray Movie Review

"Kiss you? I ought to spank you!" Ugh...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 20, 2025

Blame It on Rio was first released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber in 2018 in a now out-of-print edition. Sandpiper Pictures has since acquired the film and has released it, sans any extras. Directed by Stanley Donen and written by Charlie Peters and Larry Gelbart, it stars Michael Caine as a befuddled older man who finds himself involved in an affair with his best friend's teen daughter. Blame It on Rio also stars Joseph Bologna, Michelle Johnson, Demi Moore, Valerie Harper and José Lewgoy.

"One time a company I worked for transferred me to an island in the Pacific. Fantastic place. I invited my girl to visit me. I sent her a postcard everyday with a single word on each card. I wrote "Found a virgin paradise. It's yours. Matthew." Narturally, they were delivered in the wrong order. The message she got was "Found a virgin. It's paradise. Yours, Matthew." I never heard from her again."

Preparing for a vacation with his daughter Nikki (Demi Moore) and wife Karen (Valerie Harper), Matthew (Michael Caine) is aching to fly down to Rio, hoping to reenergize his limping marriage and spend time with his best friend, Victor (Joseph Bologna). Suffering through a divorce, Victor is eager to reconnect with his daughter, Jennifer (Michelle Johnson), on the trip, but finds his attention pulled toward the local women, leaving his 17- year-old kid to experience the wilds of Rio on her own. Matthew, struggling with the surprise than Karen has decided to take a break from their union and vacation elsewhere, attempts to make sense out of his domestic disruption, but soon finds himself sleeping with Jennifer, who's interested in the older man as a lover. While giving himself over to lust, Matthew soon realizes the gravity of his actions, now dealing with a love- struck Jennifer and a baffled Victor, who learns that his child is having a secret affair, enlisting Matthew to help discover the mystery predator's identity. Blame It on Rio employs confessional narration from the cast to ease viewers into the situation, as though the characters were being interviewed for a documentary on their Brazilian mix-ups, providing clarity for actions that don't come through in the picture.

Click here to read the rest of Brian Orndorf's review of the film, which he says "attempts its own take on a free-flowing examination of temptation and relationship woes, and while the cast is ready for action, there's not much here that works beyond a few one-liners and the visual appeal of the titular location." Adding, "It's a broad endeavor, and one that struggles to be sensual and playful, with Donen easily overwhelmed by the mix of silliness and severity, putting in as many topless women as possible to help distract from the dramatic shortcomings of the writing."

Blame It on Rio Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I didn't have quite as positive a reaction to Blame It on Rio's 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer as my colleague did in 2018. The image can be fairly flat much of the time, though colors are at least warmly saturated and vibrant. Still, skin tones are a touch too sunburnt, black levels struggle on occasion, and contrast leveling can be a bit heavy-handed. Likewise, detail wavers from one scene to the next. Grain is rather dense and obtrusive, edges are natural but less than razor sharp, and fine textures falter in midrange and wide shots. Clarity is never terrible but it does leave you wishing for a proper remaster to right the picture's wrongs. I also noticed hints of macroblocking here and there, marking an encode that needs some more room to stretch its arms and breathe. Fans of the comedy won't think it amounts to much, and I'll admit it doesn't, but Blame It on Rio is definitely one of Sandpiper's lesser releases when it comes to its AV quality.

Blame It on Rio Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Blame It on Rio features a decent DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless track that's reasonably faithful to the film's original sound design. It's also one that doesn't add any polish, meaning things like environmental noise and slight air hiss are still present. Music makes the grade, as does dialogue, with prioritization that prevents the two from overwhelming one another. It's a playful banter but a rather boring one, though that's hardly the fault of the lossless track.

Blame It on Rio Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The 2018 Kino Lorber Blu-ray included an audio commentary. Sadly, the Sandpiper Pictures edition is a barebones release, with no extras.

Blame It on Rio Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"When you get older, and obviously you're going to get a second chance at that, you'll find you can't have whatever you want. And there's a price for everything you get. And sometimes other people have to pay it!"

Cringing my way through a 17-year-old's comedic seduction of a much older man is not my idea of a good time, and good God does Blame It on Rio layer on the cringiness. There are laughs here and there, largely due to Caine's pinpoint performance, but the rest of the film struggles to strike a careful balance between comedy and tragedy. Sandpiper's Blu-ray release is problematic too, with average video quality and merely decent audio, and no special features to boot.