Too many fans seem to be blown away

good back-story, and good acting

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Blow is directed by Ted Demme and stars Johnny Depp as real life drug smuggler George Jung, who was part of the Medellin cartel run by Pablo Escobar that at one point had an 85% market share of all cocaine imported into America in the late 70s early 80s. Blow is a fairly inspired biopic with some flashy moments sprinkled throughout. Watching this film I kept asking myself what was the film trying to achieve? Because I struggled to find anything that retained my interest in the film. That's not too say this is a flat out bad film, which it isn't, it's just with a plethora of quality crime biopics such-as: Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, Serpico, Scarface etc this film falls by the wayside.The film is technically well constructed and the soundtrack was a joy. The film also contains terrific performances across the board. Johnny Depp gives one of his better performances, he does a terrific job of making a thoroughly unlikable character somewhat sympathetic and relatable. The star of the show for me was Jordi Mollà, Jung's unhinged business partner Diego Delgado. During a short stint in prison Jung and Delgado team together alongside Escobar to flood the American market with cocaine. Also in this time Jung meets and marries Mirtha (Penelope Cruz). Demme does a good job of juxtaposing their relationship against Jung's own parents which adds a nice dynamic to the film.The film is rounded out by excellent supporting performances from Ray Liotta, Rachel Griffiths and Paul Reubens. The entire cast give a committed performance. It's just a shame that for such an interesting time in history the screenplay was so dull. You almost get a sense that the creators were trying to make their own version of Goodfellas, rather than expressing their own vision, and in doing so the film came off as being disingenuous. Ted Demme does not have the same kinetic editing or free-flowing, stylish camera movements that Martin Scorsese does. Which he then tries to over-compensate with, using a high-energy soundtrack and voice-over character exposition. The problem is this only works when the pacing is rapid and the audience needs quick-fire exposition to understand what's happening. The pacing in this film is lethargic, and the voice-over became increasingly tedious.In the end Blow is a disappointing film, it had so much potential that wasn't fully realised. There are fun moments to be found in the film, and the engaging performances more than make up for a dull script. The biggest issue with Blow is that it's a film that is more interested in following the footsteps of past genre classics, rather than carving out its own path.

The story of George Jung, the man who established the American cocaine market in the 1970s. Blow is easily one the most stylish and coolest films about drugs and one of the most underrated ones of Johnny Depp's career his performance alongside Ray Liotta who plays his dad was amazing and you can totally understand why he is doing what he is doing he lost his 1st wife from cancer, he was poor and then he became addicted and met the wrong people at the wrong time. What i also loved was his relationship with his daughter played by Emma Roberts and the ending almost destroyed me and it was very sad it's one of the most rare films where it doesn't go over the top and has cartoony characters and Depp's performance was awesome!!

George Jung (Johnny Depp) is a young boy living with his parents in Boston, Massachusetts. His childhood is difficult because his parents are suffering from money problems. These money worries cause many a rift between George's parents. As a result of all the problems that being poor has caused his family, George announces that he'll make sure that he's never poor when he gets older. When he becomes a teenager, both he and his best friend Tuna move to California and soon discovers that drugs are an easy way to make a quick buck. However, as George discovers, the lifestyle that he accustoms himself to isn't all glamour and his actions end up having far reaching consequences.I think part of the problem that I had with this film is that I didn't find it particularly insightful. Despite the fact that the film clocks in at around the 2 hour mark, I left the film feeling as though I'd never really learnt much about George. I'm assuming that this was intended partly as a character study of sorts, but for me the writers didn't give George enough depth for this aspect to really work.There were other narrative issues in this film such as writing out the character of Tuna. After George is released from prison, we're told that George is living in Mexico and that's it. This may be what actually happened, but it seemed a very lazy way to write out someone who I considered to be a fairly important character. Another problem that I had with this film is that it felt repetitive (particularly after the first hour) and it did get to a point where it started to feel a bit boring. This wasn't helped by the fact that I just didn't care about any of the characters - not because they were bad but just because they weren't developed. I also thought it was a bit of a cop-out that George lost all his money due to the fact that the bank ended up nationalised which resulted in the Government seizing all his funds. I'll admit that came as a surprise, but not in a good way. It actually almost made me feel sorry for him.There are some good aspects to this film; I thought Johnny Depp was excellent in the lead role and I also thought that Molia was excellent in his respective role. I also liked the fact that the writers told the story pretty straight and didn't seem to really glorify George at any point. However, by telling the story straight it did mean that the film wasn't always as exciting or engaging as it perhaps could, and should have been. It just needed a bit more life to it.Despite all its flaws, Blow does end strongly and the ending is actually very moving. Whilst I thought it was an OK film, I didn't feel that it was anything more than that due to its rather poor development of characters, the repetitive and meandering nature of the narrative, and its severe lack of energy.

George Jung grew up in a poor struggling family in Massachusetts. He vows to never live that way. As a young man, he and his friend Tuna (Ethan Suplee) want to sell marijuana. Stewardess Barbara (Franka Potente) introduces them to a real dealer Derek Foreal (Paul Reubens). They grow their business with Barbara transporting for them. They even go down to Mexico to buy from the source. He gets arrested and Barbara dies from cancer. The group scatters. While serving time in Danbury, his cellmate Diego Delgado (Jordi Molla) connects him to the Medellín cocaine cartel. He starts smuggling cocaine and reconnects with Derek. He becomes the middle man between Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis) and cocaine dealing of Derek. At Diego's wedding, he meets his future wife Mirtha (Penélope Cruz). Eventually Diego discovers Derek's identity and double-crosses George.The movie is covering a lot of a big life. At times, it feels like the movie only scratches the surface. It's a lot of highlights or lowlights of a person. It would probably be more effective to narrow the focus to start from meeting Diego. The movie needs a partner or a foil for Johnny Depp to play against. Diego seems to be the natural choice and needs to be in the movie from beginning to end. Johnny Depp gives a compelling performance. It would be great if another character would loom just as large.