Cocaine Cowboys 2006

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: An exercise in blood-soaked nostalgia, a look back at an era (the late 1970s and early 1980s) when Miami was a bad and dangerous place to live. Read more

Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune: After beginning at a healthy clip, the film becomes mired in endless remembrances of debaucheries past and Miami's descent into lawlessness. Read more

Logan Hill, New York Magazine/Vulture: 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. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Cocaine Cowboys is kinetic and absorbing, the documentary equivalent of GoodFellas. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: While the filmmakers clearly got a contact high from hearing all these war stories, most civilians will find a little of this goes a long way. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Forget 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. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Set during the cocaine wars of the late '70s and early '80s, this documentary is out to reveal how Miami vice really worked. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The Jan Hammer music on the soundtrack works overtime to assure us that Cocaine Cowboys is the real, nastier version of Miami Vice Read more

Tim Grierson, L.A. Weekly: 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. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The only thing more boring than listening to someone on drugs may be listening to someone brag about how many drugs he used to sell. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: If The Godfather movies were based on real gangsters and some of them were still around to talk about the good old days, they might be as fascinating as the characters in Billy Corben's documentary about the cocaine import business in 1970s Miami. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: An exhaustive, exciting and ultimately exhausting history. Read more

G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle: This is an ugly film, but with an undeniable allure. Read more

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: This documentary on Miami's lethal '80s cocaine scene is cut fast. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: It's the sort of glamour-meets-violence drugs-crime story on which lads' mags thrive: unqualified, over-reverent and hysterical. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: A rogues gallery of flamboyant gangsters paint an anecdote-rich portrait of the drug trade, while a steady stream of cops, coroners and crime reporters furnish social commentary. Read more

Luke Y. Thompson, Village Voice: The story is fascinating, if a little overlong, and makes you want to see a high-profile, big-name Griselda Blanco movie happen, like, tomorrow. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: 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. Read more