The first half of Blow is a shallow but lively fun ride; the audience gets a contact high. But when George's fortunes start to go from bad to worse, so does the movie.

This is one of the few drug movies where you actually feel a little sorry for the drug-dealing coke-infested lead character.

The filmmakers are torn between presenting George's life story as a cautionary tale, or as a blast.

Director Ted Demme's colorful, vividly evocative biopic about the rise and fall of one-time American coke kingpin George Jung recalls the energy and period stylism of other blasts to the past.