That Man From Rio

A loving pastiche of every chase film one can remember.

It's fun, in an imperialist, colonialist, patronizing, exotic-marginalized-foreigners way.

We don't think of Belmondo as an action star per se, but that's what he is here, smirking like Steve McQueen and managing to keep a cigarette clamped between his lips even when he's navigating hairpin turns on a motorbike.

The fun feels forced almost all the way through "That Man From Rio," at least until the pure action and Belmondo's athleticism take over.

That Man From Rio is a crazy delight, a stylish, early-'60s pastiche that folds in every adventure-movie clich you've ever seen, and possibly invents a few new ones.

A preposterous madcap action travelogue farce.

The chase goes on and on, the joke is prolonged beyond its juiciest and That Man from Rio passes its peak of fun not too long after the first of its two hours.

Surprisingly, the film works quite well on its own terms, starring the bemused New Wave star Belmondo, and it's interesting to note how Spielberg quite heavily plundered several of de Broca's set pieces for eventual re-use.

A witty, fast-moving spoof of the international crime melodrama.

That Man In Rio has faults but that does not mean for a moment we cannot still get something out of it, even if it's, at the very least, some unadulterated thrills.