buckaroobanzai50 — 15 years ago(April 29, 2010 01:39 PM)

that whenever he wanted a new house or restaurant, he would make a movie to pay for it? I think this was one of them. The Hand is another.
I first saw this film during the mid '80s while on a school trip on a top-loading VHS machine. It was a hoot back then, for a group of us teens - Michelle's self-photo scene was especially memorable for me. But, having seen it again today, it was a dissapointment. The acting for the most part was wooden, the direction from Stanley Donen no less, was leaden. And the badly dubbed scenes were just too darn distracting. Can I advise sound people involved in films, to add some kind of effects such as reverb to any actor's voice that they over-dub. Because it sounds awfully unnatural when someone speaks in a room and there is no echo coming from their voice. I will say that Michelle's performance was okay, as a kind of vibrant innocent teenage girl who I think, basically wanted to lose her viginity to an experienced older man first.
The art direction is colourful, though a little dated. And there are nice shots of Rio, and exotic birds of the feathered and unfeathered kind. (ho ho)
There were some scenes that I still found funny; such as on the cable car when Michelle shows Michael Caine her nude photo, and a Japanese tourist tries to take a snap of it on his camera. And when Bologna reads her diary to Michael Caine, who is sweatily waiting for his name to be mentioned. But on the whole, it seemed like the cast were sleepwalking through the movie.
Blame it on money, I guess.