NBC’s loose sequel to 1990’s companion mini-series Drug
Wars: The Camarena Story. While that film was bolstered by dynamic
performances from Steven Bauer, Elizabeth Pena and a young Benicio Del Toro,
this follow-up seems to be populated with zombies. It’s full of good actors who
have all been great before, such as Dennis Farina and Alex McArthur, but it
feels like Krasny, a veteran TV director, didn’t work with them at all.
(Credited executive producer Michael Mann did nothing to leave his own mark on
the production either, save for a few of the actors who’ve appeared in far
superior films he wrote and directed.) The only standout is John Glover, who
seems to have taken it upon himself to go all out whether anyone else was or
not. The most glaring problem is that the film was obviously rushed into
production to take advantage of current headlines at the time about the drug
wars of Columbia, but it’s so dull and you can sense that it’s all building to
an anti-climactic finale because the DEA’s targets are all lower-rung cartel
people, and Pablo Escobar himself wasn’t killed until 1993. The whole drama
could easily have been compressed into one feature-length film and even that
wouldn’t have been very thrilling. The network clearly just wanted a
mini-series about drugs fast, and ordered this into production without having
much to work with. It’s not incompetently made, but it does come off like a
succession of missed opportunities. It’s unfortunate because the subject is
fascinating and is certainly fuel for a great movie, as long as you have
filmmakers with talent and a little passion involved. Witness Steven
Soderbergh’s Traffic made just eight years later, also starring Del
Toro.
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