A promising story that is poorly told, (get your coke somewhere else)

Rating: 5/10 (10 October 2010)

Not a minute goes by in Blow that doesn't feel reminiscent of Goodfellas. But whereas Scorsese's movie, was fiery, witty, credible, and involving this one is cumbersome, overlong, and contrived.
Blow starts off strong and ends strong, but the hour and a half in between is burdened by a sense of repetition, an inability to flesh out character, and the story duration (which covers about two to three decades in the life of American Cocaine entrepreneur George Jung) ages badly. It cheats the viewer by using montage to cover vast periods of time in which explanation and exposition are denied, and Johnny Depp is aged using the most phony looking wigs I've seen in ages. Jung goes from zero to hero in a matter of seconds, and his daughter ages ten years in four shots. Unlike Goodfellas, Blow is too seldomly grounded in direction, making it difficult for the viewer to invest in on a consistent basis. It has it's moments to be sure, but it didn't do enough for me to recommend it.