Overly Sympathetic view of lifelong drug dealers life

Rating: Null/10 (9 April 2001)

I enjoyed Blow. The soundtrack was wonderful, Johnny Depp turned in his usual great performance, and I really enjoyed Ray Liotta as the father/voice of reason. But the biggest problem with this movie is that it wants us to love George Jung. It wants us to feel sorry for him. Because it's such a shame that he spent his whole life dealing drugs and now he's spending time in prison. Well, guess what? Drug dealers go to prison. I felt overly manipulated by this movies attempts to portray George Jung as an American hero who ran out of luck at the end. The worst part, besides Penelope Cruz, was the closing titles, which told of how George's daughter has never visited him in prison. That was unfair and incredibly unethical by the producers of this movie. If the girl doesn't want to visit her drug dealer father, that's her decision. She's been through plenty already, and I'm sure that she doesn't need a guilt trip laid on her by a Hollywood producer. But other than the last twenty minutes of this movie, it was wonderful. If it had stuck to it's guns as a party movie, a'la Boogie Nights, it would have succeeded. But it got bogged down in sappy family love and hate relationships.