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Blow
New Line Cinema


8.1

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 27 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for pervasive drug content and language, some violence and sexuality

Starring Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Franka Potente, Rachel Griffiths, Paul Reubens, Jordi Mollà, Ray Liotta, and Jacque Lawson

A high-velocity look at George Jung's (Depp) spectacular rise and fall -- based on the true story of how powder cocaine turned into America's biggest drug problem and how one man from the blue-collar suburbs became the 35 billion-dollar a-year conduit to the Colombian cartels. Ted Demme directs this riveting look at the manic allure -- and dangerous reality -- of a drug smuggler's everyday life, and unfolds one of the great untold stories from the recent annals of American crime and culture. (New Line Cinema)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Bruce Porter (book) David McKenna Nick Cassavetes
DIRECTED BY:	Ted Demme
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 11, 2001 Video: September 11, 2001 Theatrical: April 6, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	124 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Scorches the screen with a badass bravado all its own. Smart, sexy, funny and dangerous this high-wire act is a movie and a half.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Rarely since the tale of the Corleones has a movie presented such a compelling, sympathetic portrait of a criminal lowlife.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Melancholy, haunting and riveting true-crime saga.

USA Today Mike Clark

Consistently compelling without being truly memorable.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Carries little in the way of passion or revelatory charge.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

It's basically your above-average nice drug movie.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Seductive, funny, whip-smart and ultimately tragic.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

Funny, immediately and consistently engaging, and -- well done on almost every level.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Ends up a portrait through a rose-colored lens, turning a social parasite into a Greek hero.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's a real disappointment: too hasty, too scattered and superficial, and, in the end, disappointingly sappy and sentimental.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Take away the drugs, and this is the story of a boring life in wholesale.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Too soft on its lead character and too willing to chalk up America's drug appetites to the times-that-were-a-changin' in the '60s.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Respectable but unmemorable end result may suffer from comparison with the similarly themed, albeit differently angled, “Traffic.”

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Hopefully ambitious yet hopelessly lightweight.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Inherently stale.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The acting is solid.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

It's an honest portrayal, but it leaves the audience stranded, without the emotional hook of a character we can care about.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A facile treatment of a complicated subject.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Depp's witty, spare performance gives the picture a poignancy -- a depth of feeling, if you'll allow the pun -- that Mr. Demme's hectic direction and the hurried script by David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes don't quite earn.

LA Weekly John Patterson

If as much thought had been expended on character and consequences as was lavished on bell-bottom diameters, collar widths and soundtrack selection, Blow might have been a richer, more intelligent experience, and much more Demme's movie than a carbon copy of other people's.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

This single cautionary tale of how drug innocence gives way to woeful, hung-over experience proves to be way too predictable to effectively caution or even involve anyone.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Blew its chance to be an epic drug opera. It's only nostril-deep.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

It downplays the effects of George's drug trafficking, not so much on himself and his cronies as on the wrecked lives of the generation of customers we never get to see.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A textbook case of a film that's befuddled by its subject.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Depp aside, the movie is higher on style than it is on substance.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The real problem is that there's nothing to George but the movie's props.

Chicago Reader Reece Pendleton

Only Depp and Ray Liotta (as Jung's father) manage to animate this tired formula.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

A watchable mediocrity at best.

Newsweek David Ansen

When George’s fortunes start to go from bad to worse, so does the movie.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

If any element takes us through the movie, it's him (Depp).

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

We've just been to this party before and we know how it ends, again and again and again.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

You can't make an epic about a mouse.

Time Richard Corliss

Blow works for a scene or two, then stalls.

Slate David Edelstein

This is an extraordinary -- and unfathomable -- piece of whitewashing: a true snow job.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Blake J. gave it a7:
Good, but not as good as the teenage crowd makes it out to be. Johnny does a fine job. Penelope Cruz is so evil I wanted to reach into the screen and choke her, that's acting.

Lauren C. gave it a10:
Best movie i have ever seen.

Chad H. gave it a 9:
This movie was sweet.

B.J. S. gave it a 9:
Johnny Depp was absolutely amazing in this movie. this movie was an amazing portrayal of george young which glorified him and also showed the horrible things that happened to him because of the wrong choices he made in his life. There was not a scene that seemed awkward or that did not fit at all. Ted Demme did an amazing job editing this movie and added his own style of film making that makes you know that it was he whom created it.

Melanie F. gave it a 10:
A supurbe job, well done johnny!

Yoon C. gave it a 6:
Generally serviceable movie about the rise and fall of a drugdealer in the 80s. While the movie resists the temptations for sensationalism inherent in the subject matter, Depp proves rather limp as the central hero. Informative but ultimately predictable.

Ryan T. gave it an 8:
Even though this type of movie has been done before and Scarface is definitely superior to it. It is entertaining throughout and has some great acting by Johnny Depp and Ray Liotta.

Blow New Line Cinema

Blow
New Line Cinema