Blow (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer-Canyon Interviews-Crew-George Jung Interviews (8) Featurette-Lost Paradise-Cocaine's Impact On Colombia Featurette-Addiction-Body And Soul Audio Commentary-Ted Demme (Director) & George Jung Featurette-Production Diary (12) Deleted Scenes-10 with director's commentary Featurette-Character Outtakes (6) Music Video-Push And Pull-Nikka Costa Teaser Trailer Theatrical Trailer Filmographies-Cast & Crew Informational Subtitles
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	118:20
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (106:29)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Ted Demme
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Johnny Depp Penelope Cruz Franka Potente Rachel Griffiths Paul Reubens Jordi Molla Ray Liotta
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$39.95	Music	Graeme Revell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Greek English Information	Smoking	Yes, pot
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Blow is the true story of the rise and fall of the American drug dealer "Boston" George Jung (Johnny Depp). George's father, Fred (Ray Liotta) is a struggling plumbing contractor who is never able to satisfy the financial aspirations of his wife, Ermine (Rachel Griffiths). Determined to have a better life, George moves to California with his friend Tuna (Ethan Suplee). Their goal is to live well without having to work and they soon discover that this can be achieved by selling pot supplied to them by local hairstylist Derek Foreal (Paul Reubens). When one of their old friends from home, Kevin Dulli (Max Perlich) turns up at their bungalow, he is so impressed with the quality of their pot that he persuades them that they can make a fortune by selling it back east. George's girlfriend, Barbra Buckley (Franka Potente) is an air hostess, and agrees to transport the pot to Boston on her twice-weekly flight. Soon business is going so well that George decides to travel to Mexico in order to secure a direct supply of his product.

    Things start to fall apart when George is arrested for possession of 660 pounds of Marijuana in 1972. When he finds out his girlfriend has cancer he skips bail to look after her. After her death, he returns home to visit his parents but is turned in by his mother. While serving his sentence in the Danbury Correctional Institute, he meets Diego Delgano (Jordi Molla), who has connections to Columbian cocaine cartel drug lord Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis). In George's own words "I went into goal with a Bachelor of Marijuana and graduated with a Doctorate in Cocaine". On being released from goal he wastes no time in setting up a cocaine smuggling and distribution business, literally establishing the cocaine market in the US. It's claimed that during the late 1970s and early 80s he supplied 85% of the US market.

    Johnny Depp gives another top notch performance as does Ray Liotta. Australia's Rachel Griffiths sports a very nasal American accent as one of the two b****y women in George's life, the other being his wife (Penelope Cruz). This is a rags-to-riches-to-rags story that is unlikely to convince anyone to go into the drug trafficking business.

Video

    Except for some occasional very noticeable edge enhancement and some minor aliasing this was a very good transfer.

    This transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. This is the original aspect ratio of this film.

    Sharpness was excellent except for a couple of occasions when the image was slightly out of focus, such as at 12:51, however I believe this to be an issue with the source material rather than the transfer. The only criticism that could be levelled at the transfer is in regards to edge enhancement. Even though this was only present occasionally, there were several instances where this was very noticeable, and consequently detracted from the image quality, such as at 22:44. Low level noise was not present in this transfer and the shadow detail was acceptable.

    This movie sports a colour palette that varies from muted in some scenes to fully saturated and rich in others. The outdoor scenes in particular looked vivid but the colours still appeared quite natural. In the commentary, Ted Demme explains that he tried to give each decade a specific look. For example, for the early part of the film portraying the 1950s he has tried to recreate the deep rich colours typical of a Super 8 home movie.

    This was a nice clean transfer with no MPEG artefacts evident. Equally, I don't recall seeing any film artefacts except for some film grain from 81:42 to 82:40, however this was an intentional effect in a sequence that shows a home movie. There was some minor aliasing but it was infrequent and not particularly distracting. There was also some moire evident on the grille of the campervan at 16:50.

    There are 3 subtitle options on this disc: English, Greek and English information. I watched 15 minutes or so of the English subtitles and found them to completely accurate and well-timed with respect to the dialogue. They are displayed in white text usually at the bottom of the picture but occasionally at the top if the bottom area was being used for display of burned-in information. Since this movie uses the 2.35:1 aspect ratio it's a pity the black bars weren't utilised for the subtitles.

    This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed during Chapter 23 at 106:29. Even though it was quite a quick change it is still reasonably disruptive to the flow of the movie as the picture noticeably freezes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    This is an excellent audio transfer without any flaws.

    Three audio tracks are provided on this disc. The default audio is a Dolby Digital 5.1 English soundtrack. There is also a Dolby Digital 2.0 commentary track and a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded English sound track. I listened to both the commentary track and the 5.1 track.

    Despite the various accents adopted by the actors, the dialogue was always clear enough to be understandable. Except for one or two mumbled words from George Jung during the commentary track, this was equally clear.

    I wasn't aware of any problems with the audio sync on this transfer.

    The music, with original score contributed by Graeme Revell, utilises many well-known songs from the period lending just the right atmosphere as well as a certain authenticity to the whole production. Some of the songs included were Can't You Hear Me Knocking, Black Betty and Blinded By The Light, amongst others, from notable artists of the period including The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

    Use of the surrounds was limited to providing background ambience, for effects in a couple of scenes when planes flew over, and for the musical score. Since this is a dialogue-driven story, this is all you should really expect.

    The soundtrack of this movie didn't call for too much support from the subwoofer, however it did come into play occasionally.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    You want extras..... you got extras..... Village Roadshow have done their usual fantastic job of providing a selection of interesting extras including a commentary track from the Director and the real George Jung.

Menu

    The menu is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. It is themed around the movie and includes both animation and Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. There is a short animated lead-in before the menu choices are displayed.

Interview - George Jung Interviews (8)

    This features the real George Jung being interviewed by Ted Demme while inside the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution. George talks about his life and his experience in collaborating to make the movie. There are 8 segments which range in length from 1 to 4 minutes. A "Play All" feature allows all segments to be played sequentially. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono and the video is 16x9 enhanced.

Featurette-Addiction-Body And Soul (6:02) 

    Interviews with drug and alcohol addicts as well as with psychologists, doctors and scientists who explain the nature of addition from their own experience or from a professional viewpoint. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with 16x9 enhancement. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Featurette-Lost Paradise-Cocaine's Impact On Colombia (23:41)

    This featurette contains scenes of  graphic violence. This is basically a documentary about the drug trade in Columbia. It starts by presenting a short history of Columbia from the time of Spanish conquest and then moves on to the present day through a series of interviews with journalists, filmmakers, clergymen, politicians, and so forth who propose that the drug trade is seen by many, in what has been a very poor country, as a way of making easy money.

    This is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. Except for one or two short exceptions, the dialogue is all in Spanish, however there are burned-in English subtitles. There is a slight video glitch between 11:35 and 12:10 when the bottom few lines of the picture break up.

Featurette-Production Diary (12)

    Rather than the usual text-based production notes, this is a series of twelve 1 to 2 minute presentations from the Director's video diary. These show snippets of  the day's activities behind the camera during the 63 day shoot of the movie cut with film clips that were shot during the day being described. These can be played individually or you can use the "Play All" function to show the lot. They are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded audio. The video quality is similar to VHS and is full of aliasing.

Audio Commentary-Ted Demme (Director) & George Jung

    Director Ted Demme talks about how the movie came to be made as well as his experience in making the movie. He also makes a lot of comments about the actors and has lots of praise for their performances. This is actually an interesting commentary which gives some real insight into the director's thinking in shooting this movie. The only criticism I would level is that he appears to have too many "favourite" scenes.

    There are only a few comments from George Jung which have obviously been recorded separately from the director's commentary, presumably from his prison cell. He talks mainly about the various characters in the story and make a few comments about his life. When George speaks, the audio takes on a noticeably boomy quality.

Deleted Scenes- with director's commentary (10)

    These may be played with either the actor's dialogue or with the director's commentary and in total run for approximately 26 minutes. The commentary mainly describes the scenes and their purpose in the story and in some cases why they were ultimately left out. The video quality is excellent and on par with the movie itself. They are presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with 16x9 enhancement. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded.

Featurette-Character Outtakes (6)

    All the main characters from the movie put in an appearance to talk about their relationship with George. Each segment runs between 1 and 2 minutes but there is, once again, a "Play All" function. This material appears to have been shot with the intention of including it the movie, perhaps to be run under the closing credits. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. The video has a very washed out look which appears to be intentional.

Music Video-Push And Pull-Nikka Costa (4:14)

   Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 but without 16x9 enhancement. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded.

Informational Subtitles

    These contain trivia about the characters, the actors, the places and events depicted in the movie - just about anything at all really.

Filmographies-Cast & Crew 

    Exactly that - single page filmographies for the main cast members and the director.

Teaser Trailer (0:55)

    A typical trailer presented in an aspect ratio of 2:35:1, 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded audio.

Theatrical Trailer (2:10)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded audio.

       Except for the inclusion of  some web links, the Region 1 version appears to be identical to ours. I'd choose the Region 4 disc to take advantage of the increased resolution provided by the PAL format.

    Blow was, for me, an interesting tale. George Jung made and lost lots of money but at the end he'd lost the thing that was most important to him. Aside from anything else, this was definitely a story that proved the old saying that "crime doesn't pay".

    The video quality is very good but would have been better without the edge enhancement.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    There is a very nice selection of quality extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall