Not a bad film. Not a great one, but interesting.

Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2001)

I've heard people who are very up on "Blow" and I've heard people who are very down on it. I'm not trying to pun here; there are a range of opinions out there. After watching it myself, I would say I enjoyed it, and was intruiged by it throughout, and while it is not fantastic, or all that unique, it has its moments.
It is the real life story of George Jung, a guy from New England with ambitions as big as the lapels he wears in the film, who was the biggest cocaine smuggler in American in the late seventies early eighties. It's interesting because he's not much of a hero, yet the film makes him sympathetic by giving him an unloving mother (and a very loving father who's too powerless to do anything) who seems to get most of the blame for George's behavior. George leaves home for California, where people spend all day long screwing around on the beach doing pot, which the movie shows as the good days.
It's funny to say well it's cliche, cause we're talking someone's actual life here. But just like any other coke movie (Boogie Nights, for example), the film starts off with the happy years, the great times, the fun. It's all very sexy, shot fast, montaged, loud music. Then of course there's the downward spiral. This film's got about an hour of each give or take. George also goes through death of loved ones, and betrayal after betrayal, and a bum wife, and a bad relationship with his daughter (Director Ted Demme suggests this is the theme of the film in the DVD extras; bad parenting begets bad parentings).
I must admit that the "good times" stuff does have some spice to it, and the "bad times" bits, especially the end, are very sad. While I acknowledge and applaud the skill the filmmakers clearly had, I can always feel their influence throughout. Calling Blow heavy handed would be putting it lightly. Me and those puns again.