Wow

Rating: Null/10 (24 April 2001)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I just saw this movie a few days ago and I plan on seeing it again. Everyone turned in great performances and the direction was tight. It is true that the film is very similar to Boogie Nights, Scarface, and Goodfellas, but this is a true story here (not unlike Goodfellas) about starting from nothing and working your way to the top.

Blow follows the life and times of George Jung, the most notorious cocaine dealer in American history. Starting when George is roughly eight years old and going into great detail about his close relationship with his father, an owner of a trucking company who works seven days a week just to provide for his family of three. Ray Liotta is solid in this role and is truly believable as a good father and husband. His wife, on the other hand, is a very unhappy women who just can't be pleased. After his father loses the company and files for bankruptcy, a very young George makes a vow to himself that he will never wind up like his father.
Well, George, along with his best friend "Tuna" moves out to California and this is where he is introduced to marijuana and the profits that it can bring in. He is also introduced to flamboyant hairdresser/pot supplier/business partner Derek Forreal. Derek is played perfectly by Paul Reubens (the reason I went to see this movie to begin with). The money doesn't really start to roll in until the gang heads down to Mexico to gain some more contacts. Then George is busted with 100 pounds of pot, jumps bail and eventually lands in prison.
In Prison George is put with a very talkative mexican inmate. During a two year stint, George realizes that he was chasing the wrong dream and decides that cocaine is the way to go.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. The one thing that seperates this from other films of this type is that we actually learn to love George. When things are going bad for him, we share his pain. Johnny Depp delivers a fully fleshed-out performance of a man who set out to be the best at what he did. I reccommend this film to everyone and I give it a 10/10