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| Two sex-cat Hollywood stars are lounged with money against a rustic red backdrop on this poster for Ted Demme's Blow |
George Jung is a small town American who starts a major cocaine import into the United States in the 1970s from Pablo Escobar in Cuba, becomes very rich in the process - and then loses it all.
Blow is written by Nick Cassavetes (Alpha Dog (2006)) and David McKenna (Bully (2001)), based on Bruce Porter's same-titled 1993 non-fiction book, and directed by Ted Demme (Who's the Man? (1993)).
The 1970s 'snowfall' is portrayed with exuberance in style here: The production design by Michael Z. Hanan (Pet Cemetery (1989)) and the costumes by Mark Bridges (There Will Be Blood (2007)) revel in the flamboyance of the times and characters. The key words are 'over the top'.
Johnny Depp (Sherlock Gnomes (2018)) acts well as drug-smuggler Jung, but ultimately, his irresponsible, selfish character cannot carry the film. David Nusair of Reel Films have put it more bluntly in his review: "The biggest problem with Blow is that Jung is such a complete moron." The best true crime biopic that Depp has played in remains Mike Newell's excellent Donnie Brasco (1997).
Ray Liotta (Goodfellas (1990)) is also good as Jung's concerned father, who tries to help his son, and the music of Blow is wonderful, including tracks from Lynard Skynard, The Rolling Stones, Cream, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Bob Dylan, Link Wray and others.
The plot of Blow regrettably never attains real importance for its spectators, and it may be that the film is simply a tad too preoccupied with its own 70s smoke and style. The kind of film Blow tried to be has been done better before, most notably by Martin Scorsese with Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995).
Cost: 53 mil. $
Box office: 83.2 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.56 times its cost)
[Blow premiered 29 March (USA) and runs 124 minutes. Depp was paid 4 mil. $ for his performance. Shooting took place from February - May 2000 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit Spy Kids and fellow new release Along Came a Spider, to a 12.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend in the top 5 (#5), grossing 52.9 mil. $ (63.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 4.2 mil. $ (5 %) and Germany with 2.9 mil. $ (3.5 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Demme died in 2002 of a cocaine-induced heart attack. - He almost finished his last project before this, A Decade Under the Influence (2003, documentary). Depp returned in From Hell (2001); Penélope Cruz (Official Competition/Competencia Oficial (2021)) in Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001). Blow is rotten at 55 % with a 5.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Blow?
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