Blow review

 Number 681 on the top 1000 films of all time is Ted Demme's 2001 biographical crime-drama 'Blow.'

Blow tells the story of George Jung (Johnny Depp), one of the biggest drug-traffickers in American History. We see his meteoric rise to infamy, including working with Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis) to his momentous downfall. Penelope Cruz, Rachel Griffiths and Ray Liotta co-star.

Is it far to say that film blows? Not quite, but there was definitely more bad than good. Things start interestingly enough, as we see George's rise - his relationship with his parents, his graduation from selling weed to trafficking cocaine, and his introduction to some of the biggest narco-traffickers ever. Despite the awful wigs he had to wear, Johnny Depp was charismatic as usual.

Then it all came crashing down in a second half that was founded on unlikelihoods. It stopped being an interesting look into criminality and became a hokey family-drama.

Firstly, let's start with Penelope Cruz who played George Jung's second wife Mirtha. Granted, the two had better chemistry than Depp and Framke Potente who played his first wife, but the relationship was difficult to believe. We are introduced to Mirtha, as the fiancee of a Colombian gangster who takes an instant disliking to Jung. Yet Jung is able to steal away his wife, no questions asked. In this criminal underworld, people get killed for lesser offences, yet George Jung faces no repercussions. 

But this is nothing compared to what's to come. After Jung is betrayed by his criminal associates, he decides to pack it all in and retire from crime and live a normal life. It sounds great except it's a load of rubbish. You don't just retire from a life like this; you're in it until you die. The mob doesn't let you retire; why should the cartel be any different? How do they know you won't be spilling your guts to the FBI? This is based on a real story, so I guess it must be true, but it was still difficult to stomach. 

The same goes for Penelope Cruz who was quite rightly nominated for a Golden Raspberry award. Her portrayal of Mirtha was just annoying and whiny. Also, Cliff Curtis wasn't physically imposing enough to pull off playing Pablo Escobar. He lacked the aura of menace that Wagner Mourra had on Narcos. Lastly, Rachel Griffths was badly miscast as George Jung's mother. She's five years younger than Johnny Depp and no amount of grey hair dye could convince me otherwise. Ray Liotta was more convincing as Jung's father.

It's a shame that this film's second half was so bad. It had all the potential of being another Goodfellas, but it was just a blow-out.

Abre Los Ojos review

 Number 446 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Spanish science-fiction thriller 'Abre Los Ojos,' (Open your Eyes.)

Cesar (Eduardo Noreiga) is a young man who has it all: good looks, money and a loyal best friend called Pelayo (Feliz Martinez.) He also has the affection of the attractive young woman Sofia (Penelope Cruz.) This fuels the anger of Cesar's jealous ex-lover Nuria (Najwa Nimri.) When a terrible accident leaves Cesar scarred and deformed, his life begins spiralling out of control. This leads to him uncovering a greater conspiracy.

Although science-fiction films are rotted in the real, their plots can lend themselves to the fantastical, and, at times, the unbelievable. To some extent, this would apply to Abre Los Ojos. At the end of the film all our questions are answered, but the answers did leave me raising my eyebrows. But let's backtrack a little. Cesar is an attractive playboy, but he is involved in a car crash that leaves his face deeply scarred. Forced to wear a mash, he quickly becomes a social outcast. The only thing that keeps him tethered to sanity is Sofia. But when Sofia vanishes with Nuria claiming to be her, Cesar begins to lose his mind. He tries to tell everybody the truth, but nobody believes him. All this is crosscut with him in a psychiatric institution telling his story to a shrink.

It's revealed that Cesar paid for his body to be cryogenically frozen with a cryonic company called Life Extension. Afterwards he kills himself. But Life Extension has the ability to preserve the mind in a virtual reality that is created from their client's own lives. However, this film was made in 1997. How advanced was virtual reality back then? Would it be capable of sustaining a whole virtual world? If this was the modern day, when VR headsets are a dime-a-dozen and the metaverse is looming overhead, I would find this easier to believe, but not the nineties.

Despite the spurious premise, this was a watchable film. The time-jumping narrative leaves plenty of clues to keep us interested, but it is never so mysterious that it's frustrating. There are questions to be answered in both the past and the present, and I enjoyed figuring them out at the same time as Cesar.

And Cesar is such a tragic character. You could argue that it can be difficult to feel sorry for a wealthy playboy, but he is sympathetic. He is a man who goes from everything to nothing. His jealous ex-lover crashes the car they're in, which is the accident that horrifically scars his face. He is forced to wear a mask turning him into a Frankinsteinean monster. Soon his personality becomes monstrous as he turns all his friends against him. But Noreiga played whim with just enough humanity to not make him a self-pitying mess. And Najwa Nimri was very good as his scorned ex-lover.

If there was something I would mark the film down for it would be the god-awful CGI in the during scene, but that is only a minor niggle. All in all, this was an enjoyable film. I would recommend opening your eyes and watching it.