What was needed was the Frontline approach; what is provided, sadly, is Brian de Palma Lite.
Comment
10/26/06
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Cocaine Cowboys (2006)
69
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:49
Fresh:34
Rotten:15
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: As frenetic, thrilling, and lacking in subtletly as its drug of focus...and just as likely to prompt some hard questions after it's gone.
Theatrical Release:Oct 27, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: The cocaine trade of the 70s and 80s had an indelible impact on contemporary Miami. Smugglers and distributors forever changed a once sleepy retirement community into one of the world's most... [More]
Director: Billy Corben
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Reviews for Cocaine Cowboys
At nearly two hours, Cocaine Cowboys (appropriately) doesn't know when to stop talking, but as a chronicle of a demented epoch, it's both entertaining and just about definitive.
11/23/07
There's so much compelling material here, all of it salacious and dangerous and so enjoyable that you might just feel a little guilty afterward.
12/08/06
Fast-paced and fascinating, but a little too frenetic for its own good.
11/03/07
Aiming for encyclopedic coverage of the drug epidemic and its effect on the city, Corben packs much too much into one movie.
11/03/06
Informative documentary filmmaking that belongs as much on library shelves and agency case files as in your local theatre.
10/06/06
It’s the sort of glamour-meets-violence drugs-crime story on which lads’ mags thrive: unqualified, over-reverent and hysterical.
11/22/07
A hyperventilating account of the blood-drenched Miami drug culture in the 1970s and 80s.
10/30/06
Top CriticThe haystacks of cash and coke are laughably insane – as is the head-count: thousands of people were gunned to death. This is the only state in the world where Scarface might raise a smile.
11/23/07
Cocaine Cowboys is gleefully manipulative -- which is meant as a compliment. Edited for maximum impact, it packs the furious momentum and dramatic punch of a riveting feature film.
10/31/06
It's watchable, but like gorging on every rotten issue of the old Confidential magazine.
11/10/06
Cocaine Cowboys is a fascinating look at a time when Miami was so flush with cash from cocaine deals that it was completely buffered from a nationwide recession.
12/07/06
Set during the cocaine wars of the late '70s and early '80s, this documentary is out to reveal how Miami vice really worked.
10/25/06
Top CriticCocaine Cowboys’ pulpy entertainment value merely lures us into a grim, kaleidoscopic look at how one city was both destroyed and, ironically, eventually saved by some of the worst human beings to walk the Earth.
11/02/06
Sure, the bombast is extreme, and, yes, it spends more time on tall tales than impact reports, but this vigorous, energetic doc captures the allure of a business that has never thrived on subtlety.
10/23/06
Top CriticAn exhilarating documentary that details the chaos, glamour and greed of the drug industry in Miami during the 1970s and '80s.
10/26/06
At half the length it would have been twice as good, but nevertheless it stokes a nostalgia some may have for a magic period in Miami history when it was ever so briefly the American Casablanca.
11/09/06
Top CriticThis is an ugly film, but with an undeniable allure.
11/10/06
Top CriticFans of Scarface and even Goodfellas will definitely get their thrills.
10/29/06
While it's a bit haphazardly organized and offers only a cursory analysis of the drug war's impact on the city, Billy Corben's second documentary is ultimately as compelling as any pulp yarn.
10/27/06
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