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11/18/06
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Cocaine Cowboys (2006)
69
%
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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
Cocaine Cowboys is kinetic and absorbing, the documentary equivalent of GoodFellas.
10/28/06
Too often the film crosses the line between recording his subjects' illegal activities and aggrandising them.
11/23/07
Fans of Scarface and even Goodfellas will definitely get their thrills.
10/29/06
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
This documentary on Miami's lethal '80s cocaine scene is cut fast.
11/10/06
After beginning at a healthy clip, the film becomes mired in endless remembrances of debaucheries past and Miami's descent into lawlessness.
11/09/06
Informative documentary filmmaking that belongs as much on library shelves and agency case files as in your local theatre.
10/06/06
Documentarian Billy Corben's revealing film exposes the methods and players in South Florida's drug trade that literally built the city of Miami that we know today with billions of dollars in blood cash.
04/24/09
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01/19/07
The Jan Hammer music on the soundtrack works overtime to assure us that Cocaine Cowboys is the real, nastier version of Miami Vice
12/01/06
Top CriticFast-paced and fascinating, but a little too frenetic for its own good.
11/03/07
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 CriticRich in detail and fascinating characters.
03/01/07
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
What was needed was the Frontline approach; what is provided, sadly, is Brian de Palma Lite.
10/26/06
As sensational as Scarface and a lot livelier than that Miami Vice movie.
10/30/06
Top CriticForget Scarface and Miami Vice. Cocaine Cowboys is the real deal -- a down-and-dirty look at the high living and illegal drugs that dominated south Florida in the 1980s.
11/10/06
Top CriticThrough its use of archival news footage and contemporary interviews, Cocaine Cowboys proves to be an intoxicating exploration of Miami, the '80s cocaine trade and those who saw it all happen.
11/02/06
Cocaine 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
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