CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

ma-cortes Fun romantic comedy with a British/Spanish cast and dealing with a likable Bank clerk who flees Brazil where finds lots of problems . Discovering your wife is sleeping with your boss can make a man do strange things . For a Samba-obsessed London banker (Hugh Laurie) , robbing a bank and boarding the first flight to Rio are just the beginning . He arrives in Rio , there meets a sympathetic taxi man (Santiago Segura) and ¨La Chica De Rio¨ , the lovely Orlinda (Vanessa Nunes) . But he finds his robbed loot and the safe is open and all is gone including his clothes an all , as he is left on the streets of Rio with nothing . After several complications, he travels back to England and finds an amazing surprise when he arrives .A very pleasant romantic comedy plenty of humor , emotion , agreeable scenes and mayhem . An intelligent and engaging script which uses amusing situations to give us a good movie in a high sense and intimate sensitivity and that kept me entertained for the almost one hour and fifty minutes of duration . Rightly enjoyable and fun-filled , milestone comedy which neatly combines humor , mirth , Samba dancing , entertaining situations and amusement . Flawless story with a trio of sensational protagonists , Hugh Laurie as a clerk getting into trouble , Santiago Segura as cab driver Paulo and including an unforgettable Vanessa Nunes who plays a Samba dancer , she parades sexily at her best and more relaxed and enticing than ever . Fun acting by Hugh Laurie as a mild-mannered banker finds himself living out his wildest dreams . The hit of the show is undoubtedly for the fetching Hugh Laurie who gives one of the best screen acting . I liked everyone in the excellent cast, and the male and female actors , especially Vanessa Nunes as exotic samba dancer , were all very attractive . I have seen many, Hollywood-romantic-comedies that couldn't compare with this one, but many give them a higher rating because they are Hollywood-made . The screenplay manages a lot of laughs from the audience and romantic elements that you never loose your attention from the film . This movie is a lot of fun and well worth the time. I enjoyed the film tremendously and I guarantee you that if you rent it, you'll enjoy it and have a few laughs . It was funny , great actors and a super soundtrack full of Samba music and Bossa Nova . Furthermore , a colorful and evocative cinematography by Jose Luis Alcaine who was first cinematographer to use fluorescent tube as "key" lightning and deemed to be one of the best Spanish cameraman . Alcaine frequently works with Pedro Almodóvar , Bigas Luna and Vicente Aranda , as he has photographed ¨The skin I live in¨ , The bad education¨ , ¨Volver¨ , ¨Women in the verge of a nervous breakdown¨, among others .The motion picture produced by the great producer Andres Vicente Gomez was well directed by Christopher Monger , a little prolific filmmaker who has directed some movies with moderated success such as : ¨Waiting for the light¨ , ¨The Englishman¨ , ¨Just Like a Woman¨and this ¨Girl from Rio¨ , also titled ¨La ragazza di Rio¨ or ¨A Garota do Rio Brazil¨ or ¨La Chica De Rio¨ . Rating : Good and charming picture , worthwhile seeing . The flick will appeal to Hugh Laurie fans .

DrDimensio Literally a rating for a good story and it is true that Hugh Laurie's Raymond carried the movie. Without his talent and comedic additives this movie wouldn't have a cat's chance in hell of success.The ending is brilliant and unpredictable. The English dialog amongst the non-English characters is ridiculous and typically bad. Last and least, I'll be happy never to see Santiago Segura in anything else ever again. He's fat, sloppy, ugly and how he ever landed a roll in any film (other than snuff) is beyond me.The title makes no sense only because the movie has little to do with the girl... who happens to be from Rio. As my summary suggests something as corny as A British Samba would have actually worked considering what the movie is about. This was actually a great "bad" movie. Definitely my style.

Zsofi This was one of the lamest movies we watched in the last few months with a predictable plot line and pretty bad acting (mainly from the supporting characters). The interview with Hugh Laurie on the DVD was actually more rewarding than the film itself...Hugh Laurie obviously put a lot of effort into learning how to dance the Samba but the scope of his character only required that he immerse himself at the kiddie end of the pool. The movie is based on the appearance of a lovely girl and great music but these are not sufficient to make good entertainment.If you have never seen Rio, or the inside of a British bank, this film is for you. 2 out of 10.

Claudio Carvalho Raymond (Hugh Laurie) is a bank clerk that dream on Rio de Janeiro and the samba dancer Orlinda (the beautiful and exotic Vanessa Nunes). He has a secret class of samba at night, where he teaches the rhythm and how to dance samba to British persons. One day, he finds that his wife is cheating him with his boss and he decides to rob the bank and go to Rio de Janeiro to meet his passion. In the arrival, he meets the cab driver Paulo (Santiago Segura), an authentic 'malandro carioca' (smart guy born in Rio) and he crosses the way of the powerful 'bicheiro' (owner of an illegal and popular Brazilian lottery, called 'jogo de bicho' – translating, would be animal lottery). This movie is really very funny. I watched it just to see what type of movie could a Spanish-British production offer about Rio de Janeiro, and I was indeed surprised. They use all the stereotypes that you can imagine: the Englishman that robs a bank and goes to Rio de Janeiro, the smart taxi driver, the samba dancer, the 'bicheiro', the slums, the samba school, the corruption. For locals like me, there are many funny non-senses: Raymond arrives from London in our domestic airport (Santos Dumont), instead of our international airport (Tom Jobim). The geography of Rio de Janeiro was completely disregarded: when a character crosses a tunnel, or climbs a slum, in the next scene he will be in a completely different area of Rio de Janeiro. Another funny situation is when the money is flying over the slum: please note in the right side of the TV screen and you will see a man throwing money for the shot. Anyway, this movie is very funny and Hugh Laurie is perfect, with his British behavior and lost as a tourist in Rio. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Garota do Rio" ("Girl of Rio")