The movie that never had a chance.

Rating: Null/10 (5 February 2002)

If Blow had come out a year earlier, maybe somebody would've given a crap about it. I'm not saying it would have been hailed as a groundbreaking masterpiece, but it certainly would have been noticed on a larger scale. Instead, it was dwarfed by the release of the far superior Traffic. With the "best movie on the subject of cocaine" category already in the bag, Blow was left without its main source of credibility. As far as the actual movie, it wasn't all that bad. It had a sort of a Goodfellas vibe, and Depp gave a good performance. Paul Reubens was pretty good. Demme's directing showed promise, if not much originality. I guess my main problem was the same problem I had with Goodfellas and The General. Since it's based on a first-person account, we're led to believe that the main character was never directly involved in any of the really rough stuff that comes with that kind of career path. In short, that Jung never had anyone beaten or killed. Hey, maybe he didn't. But wouldn't that require a little explanation? "How I got through a career of smuggling narcotics without hurting anybody." Cute movie, but not great.