Cocaine Cowboys (2006)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Billy Corben

Release Date:

23 November 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary | Crime

Tagline:

The incredible true story that inspired "Scarface" and "Miami Vice".

Plot:

In the 1980s, ruthless Colombian cocaine barons invaded Miami with a brand of violence unseen in this country since Prohibition-era Chicago...

Plot Keywords:

Cocaine | Drugs | Murder | 1980s | Violence

Cast

Jon Roberts	...	Himself
Al Sunshine	...	Himself
Sam Burstyn	...	Himself
Mickey Munday	...	Himself
Bob Palumbo	...	Himself
Toni Mooney	...	Herself
Edna Buchanan	...	Herself
Joseph Davis	...	Himself (as Dr. Joseph Davis)
Al Singleton	...	Himself
Louis Caruso	...	Himself
Raul Diaz	...	Himself
Jorge Ayala	...	Himself (as Jorge 'Rivi' Ayala)
Nelson Andreu	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Griselda Blanco	...	Herself (archive footage)
Kelly Hughes	...	Girl in apt
Jenna Reeves	...	Girl In Ocean
Monica Rooker	...	Grizel Lorenzo
Alfred Spellman	...	Chucho Castro

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive drug content, gruesome violent images, and language.

Runtime:

118 min | USA:116 min (short version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R | Australia:M (2007) | Germany:16 | Norway:10 (TV rating) | Norway:15 (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Miami, Florida, USA

Company:

Rakontur

Movie Connections:

References "Miami Vice" (1984)

When you can't get enough money piling up montages... Cocaine Cowboys is for you.

Leaving no tired coke dealer cliché untouched, this film will be coming soon to a wannabe rapper or drug dealer's DVD player soon... so pull up a black leather couch... if you must. Could this film be any more mediocre?

A lot of people will disagree, those people are the same dullards that make straight to DVD crap like this viable. The truth can be ugly.

This just in, apparently a lot of money was made in the 80s selling cocaine in Miami. Wow. I know that's a lightning bolt to most people but if you've seen one movie about cocaine sales you know it will not be complete with out 20 minutes of cash piling up montages and police photos of bloody bodies. Apparently the film makers only had access to a few photos of the people they are talking about and interviewing as you keep seeing the same photos over and over again.

If you've ever been to South Beach, you see wealth on display but it's also hard to imagine this place during the REAL heyday of the 80s. This film does manage to capture that part, so it has that going for it. The documentary style of this does seem to be hijacked from several other more recent films.

You find out all kinds of things about Griselda Blanco and her henchmen all of it basically the heresay of convicted felons and washed up out of the game former drug dealers. While the stories told are fantastic they seem plausible in this insane world the cocaine cash cow of the 80s.

The film seems to have a sort of self congratulatory glow about it.

Calling this tabloid journalism is giving it too much credit. This film is disgracefully exploitative and frankly really not that interesting or as shocking as they seem to give themselves credit for. This film hits all of the key cliché's when making a film about drugs, pointless violence, over glamorization of the endless amounts of money and basically ignoring the fact that most of these losers being interviewed seem almost too happy to tell you in an unflinching way how they shot someone or did this or that making all of this cash, meanwhile all they are in the end are idiots that didn't know when to quit. Wow, nice "Glory days". Congratulations dirt-bags.

I really feel the best way to see this film is cruising A1A in Diddy's SUV between endless Scarface and Carlito's Way viewings. Or, just don't view it at all and save yourself the 2 hours.