The Popkorn Junkie

By the end of this movie, most watchers are probably about ready to start a campaign to free George Jung. The character just comes off as so, well, innocent. As we watch Johnny Depp get swept up into the ease of dealing enormous quantities of marijuana and cocaine, we start longing for a disco. You can feel for this guy. The question becomes, which guy are you feeling for (Depp or Jung)? Jung almost single-handedly supplied the United States with cocaine. An amazing statistic in the movie states that if you did coke in the late 70's or early 80's, there's an 85% chance that it came from him. He started the craze. And it was fun for a while. And it's fun to watch Johnny Depp being groovy, baby.

But you have to remember that cocaine is not a good thing. And we see it destroy Jung and most of his friends. We see the ugly side. The only problem that I can see with this movie is that the ugly side seems almost acceptable -- that the price seems almost worth the good times. Actually, that's not really a problem with the movie, but it sure is confusing. Perhaps the real problem is that Johnny Depp is just so darn good. Maybe he paints Jung just a shade more likeable than he should be colored. The film is well-made all around. You literally watch Depp go from being eighteen to forty-two, and an old forty-two at that. You literally want to pinch Penelope Cruz's little bird face when she is mean to him. You literally feel bad when the big-time drug dealer gets shafted out of the game. You think about picking up the phone and suggesting that his daughter forgive his horrible treatment of her. You're glad that you're not him.

And when you see the face of the real George Jung at the end of the movie, it's hard to look at it. You're just not sure what you should be feeling.

-- Liz ( 3 out of 4 pops )

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Other Junkie's opinions.....

Patsy ( 3 out of 4 pops)

Let's get this straight-- "Blow" is a movie about drugs and drug dealers. If you don't like movies of that nature you won't like this one. If you didn't like "Traffic" don't go near "Blow". As for me, I wasn't too interested in seeing this movie but the groovy disco soundtrack and the fact that Pee-Wee Herman had a supporting role intrigued me. It's a good movie about a bad man...well, not bad because he is evil, but bad because he introduced tons of drugs into the U.S. (which is illegal and therefore bad). The film doesn't glorify Jung or drugs, it just tells us Jung's story, which happens to be pretty interesting. The important thing here is that "Blow" shows us the consequences of being a drug dealer/smuggler and in the end, you'll see that Jung gets what he deserves-- a very long, lonely, jail sentence.