In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Blistering performances.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Anyone familiar with the story of Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel will know how the mass manufacturing and distribution of cocaine turned Colombia into a war zone, with top politicians and judges routinely assassinated, and gang wars spilling violence onto the streets on a daily basis. Billy Corben's documentary Cocaine Cowboys focuses on the effect the most fashionable drug of the 80s had on Miami, which was the main entry point for masses of imported cocaine. Soon enough, the city once seen as the holiday spot for retired old folks was turned into the richest place in the world, with luxury car dealerships and expensive jewellery shops popping up all over, and of course, lots and lots of banks. The sudden boom was all down to cocaine consumption, and this came with a heavy price.Corben tells the story using a variety of interviews, news reports, archive footage and photographs, lending a voice to everyone from smugglers, enforcers, politicians and law enforcement. The most fascinating insight is given by pilots Jon Roberts and Mickey Munday, who decided to get into the drug trade early on, making an unfathomable fortune in the process. They offer entertaining anecdotes about their experiences, and were making so much money that they lived in little fear of getting caught, even buying their own airports to import the goods in complete secrecy. Roberts and Munday were just regular guys who never dreamed that they could ever become so wealthy, and made sure to enjoy the high-life while it lasted. The main threat came from the cartel itself, which was so powerful and far-reaching that one foot out of line and you were dead, often by way of horrific torture.The film's final third focuses heavily on the 'Cocaine Wars' that became so out-of-hand and brazen that it led to military intervention. This segment is told through the recollections of the deceptively charming inmate Jorge 'Rivi' Ayala, a former hit-man for crime family matriarch Griselda Blanco - known as the 'Godmother' - a woman capable of unspeakable cruelty and brutality. If she didn't like your face, you were a goner, and often entire families, including young children, were wiped out in order to leave no witnesses. It's a mind-blowing tale of how one drug can have such a devastating effect on a country, and it's told in a fast-paced, almost coked-up fashion, with the clever use of subtle animation to make stills feel alive, and a wealth of shocking and revealing archive footage to paint a clear picture of a city in crisis. A 'Reloaded' edition was released in 2014, which adds over 30 minutes of footage and provides updates on some of the subjects. I've seen both, and the original, shorter version tells a much tighter story.

Cocaine Cowboys a beautiful shot film, if you are into heavy 80's news style, but the overall documentary is boring. Who cares about the people that smuggled coke into America; who cares about the people that found out about it and put a stop to it, the documentary doesn't give us anything to care about. In the end the style of the film gets irritating, the people pointlessly unammusing and the film being pretentiously bad. Nothing to get excited about here. The story is told in a bland way, the interviewees boring and the substance nonexistent. Maybe one of the worst documentaries I've seen and that is saying something. Really pointless, and to be honest, how could you build on what a mess they have made with this news story. Keep away Netflix fans.

2006 Version: What I liked most about this "documentary", is that there is no voice-over that says us what to thing and it is just testimony of people who were in "the game" at the time. But when you add great editing, fantastic 80's soundtrack and footage you get story, that puts lot of movies like Scarface to shame. I have problem calling this a documentary, because lot of testimonies, especially from the people involved in drug trafficking are pretty unreliable. But who cares? After it ends you wanna see more. You will understand what made Miami so special and you gonna see the bigger picture behind the city. 9/102013 Version: For start, this version is not just 30 minutes extended, it has about 5-10% original footage. It is not near as enjoyable or interesting as first version, because all aspects what made first version great are not there. Soundtrack is mediocre remake from the original, it doesn't have that movie atmosphere and it is too long. There are few interesting facts, for instance you gonna learn that John Roberts was deeper involved than you would have think from the first version. This version has more reliable testimonies and it is less "glorifying", but the charm is gone. 6/10

Shocking. With only this one word you could best express the movie Cocaine Cowboys. This document about the beginnings of drug business in the USA is brutal, natural and informative. I really liked that the “authors” told us also numbers, strategies, trading, techniques … everything what you could join with drug mafiosos. Prisoners told us how they were laughing about films in cinema or TV (for example Miami Vice) and they characterized it as stupidity. You can see the changes of the Miami City (especially infrastructure). It is apparent that police was, is and will always be one step behind and that this functional business is unstoppable. It is interesting that you are not bored, also because brutal shots (police photos), which you can see a lot in the film. And the motive? Money! If you want to know something more about drug cartels, Cocaine Cowboys is the right movie for you.