Who says marijuana isn't a gateway drug, look what it did for George Jung? Johnny Depp turns in an intriguing performance without resorting to scissor hands or a pirate outfit in this story of how the cocaine trade came to America in the Seventies, courtesy of Jung's involvement with the Medellin drug cartel. If you were around back then, you would have heard the name of Pablo Escobar pop up every now and then, sounding like a character from the original Mission Impossible TV series. What impressed me most in the story was seeing all those rooms filled floor to ceiling with boxes of money!!! Holy cow, could Jung and his associates have amassed that much cash in such a short period of time? The mind boggles.

Though she probably did the right thing for turning in her son, Mom Ermine Jung (Rachel Griffiths) seemed like a really wretched character. I couldn't figure out why Dad (Ray Liotta) stayed with her after all those times she left him when George was still a little guy. For his part, George seemed like a glutton for punishment considering all the arrests and that beating he took from Diego Delgado's (Jordi Mollà) goons after stealing Jung's California connection. He even got set up by his friends for that final bust, proving that in the drug business, you just can't trust anyone.

Penelope Cruz might be second billed here but she doesn't show up until much later in the story. Paul Reubens affects a fey character until it's time to get down to business, and even he can't believe the potential in the early going. You can never know for sure how true these stories inspired by real events can be, but George Jung's rise to the near top of the cocaine pyramid in the United States gets a pretty good showing here. Following Jung's release from prison in 2014, he still dabbles in the drug trade, and the movie helped him gain some notoriety with personal appearances. What would you expect from somebody with the attitude that "Life's a rodeo, the only thing you have to do is stay in the saddle. And I'm back in the saddle again."

George Jung grew up in a poor struggling family in Massachusetts. He vows to never live that way. As a young man, he and his friend Tuna (Ethan Suplee) want to sell marijuana. Stewardess Barbara (Franka Potente) introduces them to a real dealer Derek Foreal (Paul Reubens). They grow their business with Barbara transporting for them. They even go down to Mexico to buy from the source. He gets arrested and Barbara dies from cancer. The group scatters. While serving time in Danbury, his cellmate Diego Delgado (Jordi Molla) connects him to the Medellín cocaine cartel. He starts smuggling cocaine and reconnects with Derek. He becomes the middle man between Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis) and cocaine dealing of Derek. At Diego's wedding, he meets his future wife Mirtha (Penélope Cruz). Eventually Diego discovers Derek's identity and double-crosses George.

The movie is covering a lot of a big life. At times, it feels like the movie only scratches the surface. It's a lot of highlights or lowlights of a person. It would probably be more effective to narrow the focus to start from meeting Diego. The movie needs a partner or a foil for Johnny Depp to play against. Diego seems to be the natural choice and needs to be in the movie from beginning to end. Johnny Depp gives a compelling performance. It would be great if another character would loom just as large.

Or should it be yes Blow? Not to confuse though, the movie is good. And I wasn't surprised overall, but after a quite mediocre beginning, the movie did find a grip to hold me and entertain me until the end. Yes there have been quite a few movies that have a similar storyline, a similar structure of a man and his rise into crime, fame and/or money.

It's amazing to not just see Johnny Depp in a way more serious role and far removed from his Captain Jack Sparrow persona, but also someone like Ray Liotta, really downplaying and being as subtle as can be. Generally speaking the movie is very well cast and has a true story as a background to hold up anything it is telling us. Of course exaggerations are made, though I'm not too familiar with what actually happened to point these things out. The disc version (New Line did a thing called Infini Film, which I thought was quite cool) has a lot of background info for you to dive into though, if interested.