Rating: 
Summary: Highly Disappointing
Review: A good old boy with high hopes of getting into a life of crime rises to the top and lives the good life before experiencing marital problems, doing some jail time, and eventually becoming a paranoid cocaine addict as the walls of his decadent lifestyle come tumbling down around him. Anyone familiar with Scorsese's GoodFellas will recognize the similarities and do themselves a favor by watching it again instead of this copycat. Blow is a fair enough film for those who aren't too choosy about what they watch--it seems unfortunate, though, to waste time watching it when you could instead be seeing the highly superior films that it borrows from (GoodFellas, Boogie Nights).
Rating: 
Summary: I Was Pleasantly Surprised.....
Review: After reading the mixed reviews on this movie, I watched it with a high level of skepticism, but was quickly impressed by this movie, except I do have to say that Penelope Lopez's character got under my skin pretty quickly....perhaps another actress could have brought more depth to the role...? Anyway, it kind of reminded me of watching Miami Vice, only from the other side and it was fascinating to watch how a small time drug dealer came to have one of the largest drug empires in U.S. History in such a short period of time. I especially like one of the first scenes when they show cocaine being made in Columbia....leaves are ground up, turned into a paste, spread out on a table to dry, thus turning it into a powder firm which is then measured out to be distributed. It also causes you to feel for the Columbian people who are poor, and thus reliant on exporting this drug for economic survival....makes for a complicated political/moral situation. I even felt myself feeling a little sorry for George Jung towards the end, but I could have felt more so if he had displayed more emotion throughout the film. It was sad to see his friends of all those years suddenly turn on him in order to save themselves from the Feds. Just goes to show you what a ruthless business drug dealing is and like his dad said in the begining "money isn't all that important....it only seems like it is"...this could also be seen when he lost nearly all his money when his foreign bank was taken over by the new government. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the movie wasn't as overly violent as it could have been given the subject matter...I think only two people were shot during the entire movie. Just goes to show you that a movie doesn't have to rely on violence and gore to be good...a good storyline can support it alone.....other movies today could learn from this. The only thing I couldn't understand is why Johnny Depp bleached his hair blonde for the role when according to the photo shown at the end, the real George Jung was a brunette....?
Rating:
Summary: A below average and familiar film...
Review: I give this film 2 stars because it was watchable,the packaging is quite well done and there are a few good performances. Still, I will never see it again. It seems like the end result of placing Goodfellas,Scarface(1983) and Boogie Nights in a blender and setting it to puree. There is not one original idea here and that extends to the late Ted Demme's directing style. Gimiky affectations such as slow motion,freeze frame,MTV style collages and even a sideways shot (that one of Jung & Diego at the hotel-terrible!) are liberally tossed into the mix with other cheap effects. The only thing you can take away from a film which resorts to such attempted showmanship is that the director is trying to distract you. Here he's trying to prevent you from noticing: a few annoying or outright bad performances(first and foremost that of Penelope Cruz),the fact that beyond the "tricks" the film is pretty artless, that it's overlong and that it often resorts to cliches instead of building characters.If you are one of the people that believes that this film is a worthy attempt to open a real dialog on the unfairness in our drug laws-then reconsider. A film about someone who has a clean record but is put away for 25 years because of a manditory minimum law (yet they only had a small amount of drugs on them) COULD do that. But...One about a repeat offender who is trafficing in huge quantities to fuel a decadent lifestyle? One in which the main character brags about helping fuel America's addiction to cocaine and tries to justify it with self serving "philosophies"? One that features an unsympathetic character who fantasizes that the daughter he had forsaken,because of his greed,appears to forgive him? A film like that will NEVER achive such an honorable goal. There are some good acting turns here. Depp is believable as Jung (he does a good job of showing 3 decades of hard living with just his face) and brings his talent to the most interesting scenes in the film-the ones where Jung has to deal with the fractured relationships he has with the people he loves. Yet,you can't help but hope that Johnny Depp finds a few roles that he can make his own in films that deserve such devotion. Paul Rubens is actually pretty good here too but his character is almost non-existant. You find out little more about him than his dealing of drugs yet Rubens almost makes him "human".Jordi Molla is good as Diego but his character flames out ala Scarface(minus the hail of bullets). Ray Liotta is decent as well and it seems like the first time in ages. Speaking of ages, I can't be the only one that was unimpressed by the make up used to age these characters. With all the advancements made in the last 10 years in that field you should be able to expect something more than a slightly advanced "Giant" (the James Dean film with embarassing age makeup). There were many bad wigs and Depp appeared to have a basketball tucked under his shirt for the modern day finale. Drug and gangster film cliches(recycled doubledealings and backs stabbing,sadistic thugs,piles of coke...),poor artistic choices and a clear lack of focus (especially concerning how we're supposed to feel about the 7 time loser Jung) help derail this film. It's far too "by the numbers" to be considered a success. Plus, how can you waste the considerable charm and energy of "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" by the Rolling Stones on a boring and poorly concieved opening sequence featuring natives prepairing the blow? Just one of many missed oppertunities.The real shame here is that this DVD has an easy to use and non jarring setup,a boatload of extras and was obviously crafted with care and skill. This marks another below average film that has all the dressing that's missing from a number of superior film's DVD packaging. Oh well... Maybe the only fitting conclusion to this cloudy tale,that is ostensibly about the evil's and pitfall's of the drug culture, is the irony envolved in Ted Demme's death. After completing this film, the relativly young Demme died during a basketball game. "Blow" was found in his system.
Rating: 
Summary: ...job & a lousy one at that. Rotten movie
Review: This movie is embarrassingly amateurish. Where to start, Depp's Ken-doll page-boy hairsprayed hair-do? In 1968? No way. Maybe 1978. The parents who never age while George gains 20 years? Where are we, Gasoline Alley? We won't dwell on the pinkie-in-the-air, non-stop chattering, fake dope-smoking poses with alligator-clipped roaches held like cigarette holders in a Joan Crawford movie. Is it that Hollywood types don't like to make dope-smoking look real? Guilt by association? Then all that manufactured side-of-the-mouth tough-cookie jazz. Hmmmmm. They should have just dubbed the cheapest Hong Kong flick they could find. It would have been 1000 times better. This movie makes Mod Squad look like Casablanca.
Rating:
Summary: many a touching moment in this film
Review: here's a film in which the lead character doesn't really want to be a gangster, but one circumstance leads to another circumstance and the next thing you know, he's meeting with Pablo Escobar, the biggest drug lord in the world. A very interesting journey, to say the least. Here's a movie that gives you another intriguing story of a "regular guy" who ends up in extra-ordinary circumstances, and with a little bit of street-smarts, a little bit of charm and a lotta balls, makes something out of himself. Mind you, I personally have always been fascinated with the biographies of famous people, so maybe this story won't grab you as much as it did me. But the actors are also all very good in this film, the high style in perfect alignment with the previously mentioned flicks and plenty of drama, bits of humor, betrayals and double-crossings
Rating:
Summary: disturbing....
Review: A good film to watch when you think your life is messed up.
Rating:
Summary: Dry Treatment of an Uninteresting Plot
Review: This movie drags. The plot moves slowly. It is typical of movies with an inverted hero, the treatment of the subject is neither innovative nor exciting. The high point is seeing Pee-Wee Herman, Bobcat Goldthwait, and that 21 Jump Street guy doing a hit of coke, all together, off a bar while girls in bikinis play in the pool. Depp struggles with an amusing, forced, and marginal Boston accent. He seems to have copped it by watching Good Will Hunting about six times. He should have watched it six or eight more times. But, yeah, that triumverate of acting talent doing a line, that's about the high point. The soundtrack is great, and the audio is well produced. But it's not an entertaining movie, or even a well-told story.
Rating:
Summary: Blow: the inevitable crash of George Jung
Review: Director Ted Demme died from a drug overdose around a year after finishing Blow. One suspects that the highly talented Demme desired to confront his own demons while putting together this first rate film. Johnny Depp aptly portrays George Jung as a man who subtly, but most assuredly chose the path to self destruction. He is not a victim and deserves no pity. Is Jung a monster? Perhaps not, but he made his own bed and now has to lie in it. Jung is greatly responsible for introducing the horror of cocaine into the United States. He starts out as a typical teenager from a blue collar family. Jung's father (Ray Liotta) and mother (Rachel Griffiths) raises their family in a struggling middle class environment. During his early adult years, Jung travels to California and starts enjoying the wild parties, easy sex, and mind altering drugs. He eventually meets a major drug seller (Paul Reubens) who partners with him to market very large quantities of marijuana. Common sense dictates that sooner or later Jung will be arrested. Sadly, however, Jung is not only personally addicted to drugs but also the accompanying risky lifestyle. Rational considerations therefore will not stand in the way of Jung's slide into evil and debauchery. We eventually accompany Jung to Columbia where he is promoted to the major leagues of drug running. Betrayal and back stabbing become the norm. He meets and marries Mirtha (Penelope Cruz), a woman is also a coke junkie and out of control pleasure seeker. Hedonism dominates their lifestyle, and money is so plentiful that neither knows how to spend it all. They flippantly make large purchases which soon bore them. Bringing a child into the world does little to encourage prudence. Their train is going to crash, and one can only hope the collateral damage is minimal. Our eyes are riveted to the screen as Jung is ultimately brought to a bad end. Ted Demme may have been too conflicted to unambiguously present George Jung as a moral monster deserving of severe punishment, but we never mistake him for some sort of misunderstood folk hero. Blow will force you to wonder if our drug laws make any sense. Is it truly worth the damage to our political and public institutions to continue criminalizing such activity? Jung, after all, may be still be in jail, but his successors remain on the street. I also recommend Traffic and the utterly fantastic and overlooked masterpiece, Rush. And yes, parents should definitely encourage their adolescent children to view this disturbing film.
Rating:
Summary: BUY IT! ... EXCELLENT! ....NOT TO BE CRITICIZED!
Review: I can't BELIEVE anyone could put down this movie! First of all,it's a TRUE story about the famous criminal George Jung who quoted something like "I saw Johnny Depp become SO MUCH like me , it was scary"! Johhny Depp did an EXCELLENT performance, he is an excellent actor, so is Ray Liotta (who plays his Dad, and Ray is only 7 and 1/2 yrs older than Johnny in real life,but this movie goes over a 25+ yr. time span)! It was refreshing to see Ray Liotta in a "Non-Violent role! lol! The first movie I saw with Penelope Cruz,and she was good.
I DO NOT see this movie as GLORIFYING crime! Neither do my friends, we see the TRUTH in this, that CRIME DOESN'T PAY! George could have changed, but he was obsessed with living on the edge. This movie is a GREAT influence for those FOOLS out there who are selling drugs thinking "I'm careful, it will never happen to me". OR "I won't get cought, because I don't use drugs, I'm careful, I just sell them"(remember Ray Liotta in GOODFELLOWS getting busted for coke? I recommend that movie also,good mafia movie,lots of famous stars & funny). This movie also teaches you, that when it comes to the people you THINK are your friends, who also sell drugs, are NOT really your friends! (no, I never sold them! you'll see in the movie what I mean). Everyone drug dealer is out to save their own self from jail! This movie is worth watching way more than once. You'll see how George lost MORE than his freedom, mansion,wife, and fancy cars, in the end of the movie. Theres good classic rock music in this movie too, plenty of action and suspence!!! Worth Buying!
Rating:
Summary: Moviemaker tries to gain sympathy for a psychotic criminal.
Review: Oh Lordy, where does one start? I believe that first of all every movie should be taken at its face value. Whatever the makers of BLOW may claim, their final product is a smoothed-over attempt to create sympathy for one of the most evil men to ever inhabit the USA. This is not surprising since it is undeniable that many of the people involved in making this movie were themselves avid customers of the odious Mr. Jung. Purported to be a biography of George Jung, major cocaine dealer and purveyor of horror and death to thousands of people, the final result is simply a thinly disguised attempt to make people feel sorry for this hideous sub-human creature. If creating a sympathetic public perception of the evil Mr. Jung was not a purpose of this movie, then why were all the details about his philandering, perversions and abuse ignored? Read Jung's biography and you will see just how far the moviemakers had to hide the truth to create their propaganda piece for Jung. With the most contorted "logic" imaginable (and a very strong helping of pop-psychology and the usual excuses for all sorts of criminal activities) George's life of crime is somehow all the fault of his mother! Why some in Hollywood love to shift personal responsibilty for criminal actions on others says an awful lot about the movie-makers themselves. Millions of people the world over have childhoods far worse than Mr. Jung and the vast majority somehow find honest means to achieve personal success. Why should Jung get a pass because because his mother was mean to him sometimes? Whose mother wasn't? Misogyny is ascendant here. Why should we feel sorry for Jung because his daughter refuses to visit him in prison? Did the director think that there would be a flood of public sympathy for Jung, forcing his daughter to communicate with him? Who knows? But if your father had deserted you through much of your childhood because he was psychotically compulsed to import and sell poison to America's youth I think that many of you would want little or nothing to do with the guy as well. Some think that Jung has only gotten what he deserved. I believe that should he be executed by slow torture a hundred times he would not have made even a down-payment for what he has done. This movie demonstrates very glaringly the extent of the acceptance of insane criminal conduct amongst the Hollyood elitists.
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