Product: Blow [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 3.0
drug smuggler as nice, glamourous, and a fool
This starts off really well, with a guy who kind of stumbles into drug dealing and then applies his great natural talents to it with innovative audacity. For the first half of the film, it portrays the whole hippy-to-coke era as a a kind of almost innocent frolic. Then, once some real baddies emerge, it get really rough in the second half, leading to the downfall of a more or less good natured guy who wants to get out and raise his daughter, but cannot. In other words, this is pretty cheaply romantic, almost making George into a feckless victim of the more ruthless players he is forced to deal with, to ever worsening betrayals. That is what hollywood did to the story of a criminal who helped bring Escobar's cocaine into the US at horrendous cost to the society.That being said, the film is fun to watch. You get a feel for the 60s-80s, music, fashion, and all. For the first hour or so, the acting is also extremely good, particularly with Depp as the young George, and tightly edited. Once the downward slide begins, however, the film's tone becomes rushed and sloppy. That makes the second hour boring in addition to dreary and depressing. OK, it does become a kind of morality tale, but it is rather heavy-handed to say the least. Finally, it is not an interesting portrayal of the drug industry.I would recommend renting this, as you may not want to watch it over and over.