Smile for the camera.

Shawn

I wasn't feeling too cheery after watching this movie. The rise and fall of a marijuana/cocaine dealer is documented through the flower power years to the present in this one. The idea has been approached before, and the story is the same as the others. After all the riches, the drug dealer (played by Depp in Blow) has to crash and burn at the end. Although the downfall of Depp's character isn't quite as dramatic as say Pacino's in Scarface, it sure is sad. After all the years of pursuing the accumulation of wealth, he finally figures out the one thing his dad (Liotta) was always trying to teach him, money isn't everything, love is. The movie takes on two distinct halves. The first half has a playful, comedic quality about it, and the second half gets more serious and subdued. Great acting from beginning to end kept my attention, but movies of this quality seem to suffer from a fatal pitfall. The rise of the lead character to success is great to watch, but it's hard to watch a character slowly fall from power, slowly crumbling away to nothing. Cringe at the unnecessary picture of the real man the lead character is based on at the end of the movie.

Rent the DVD