Missed opportunities all round

Rating: 4/10 (1 January 2006)

George Jung's life as an international drug-dealer must surely have been more exciting than Ted Demme's dull depiction of it. His film certainly looks good and the period detail is spot-on, and as Jung Johnny Depp's performance is as accomplished as ever, (he's virtually never off the screen), but it has no zip, no sense of danger. He may as well be manufacturing sweets as peddling drugs. It's like DePalma's "Scarface" or Scorcese's "Goodfellas" directed by an enthusiastic, movie-loving schoolboy who can't quite get it together, but even an amateur film fanatic might have displayed a little more chutzpah than Demme does. On the plus side, Penelope Cruz goes the distance and does what is probably her best acting in an English speaking part, but otherwise it is missed opportunities all round. It also seems to go on forever.