Like-minded movie

Rating: Null/10 (8 April 2001)

If you have seen "Goodfellas" or "Boogie Nights", either stay clear of this film or do not build up your hopes of seeing it. It is a good one, but it is burdened by the "how this works" movies of the past twenty years. The major MAJOR flaw of it is that it chose to go with narration by the main character--the protagonist who you are supposed to hate. It reminded audiance members of "Goodfellas" and from there on out, it was a blatant rip-off. True, "Blow" is a true story, telling of the rise-and-fall of one of Pablo Escobar's strongest advocates in the eighties. But then, "Goodfellas" did the same thing. That may have sounded cold, but hey, it's true.
The direction has been re-washed of Scorsese and Anderson (director Demme even thanks the two great ones in the closing credits). I liked it, though, in that it expanded on certain flaws like being true to ones biological family--something that "Boogie Nights" and "Goodfellas" did not do, not that it was needed. I also liked it because I recently saw "Scarface" for the first time, and I thought that if that movie could be a hundered times better, this would be it.
The ending is sad and depressing, and is so melodramatic it seems like it could have been a propaganda film funded by the DEA. Why not? It made me never want to smuggle drugs. I guess it was a fair film, like-minded, thought-provoking if you're a short-term thinker. It's just not a film I see myself watching over-and-over and analyzing like "Goodfellas" or "Boogie Nights". 7/10