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Steven Soderbergh holds forth for two and a half hours on the illicit drug trade. One hears that the narrative is "complex," but only in the strictly numerical sense of "consisting of two or more related parts" (courtesy of Webster's New World Dictionary). Three parts, to be absolutely exact. The first deals with a morally ambiguous Tijuana cop (Benicio Del Toro), the second with two DEA agents (Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman, a couple of Soderbergh repertory players) in their efforts to safeguard an unwilling witness against a socially prominent San Diego dope dealer, and the third with the newly appointed federal drug czar (Michael Douglas) whose own adolescent daughter is herself ironically, tragically, melodramatically, and mawkishly hooked on drugs. Only the moral ambiguity of the Tijuana cop, or maybe the general ambiguity of law enforcement in Mexico, attains anything close to complexity in the deeper sense. The other two plot strands, unsuccessfully camouflaged by the documentary-style camerawork (jerky pans, a wavering frame), are individually on the level of a TV movie. Or old episode of Hawaii Five-O. Further lessening the complexity of the design is Soderbergh's decorative decision to color-code each plot strand: the czar's section, whether in his hometown of Cincinnati or in the corridors of Washington, D.C., is tinted blue; the Tijuana cop's is all in yellow; and the DEA's is blanketed in a whitish-brownish foggy-smoggy haze. Or to say it another way, instead of giving his movie a unifying "vision," he gives it a variety of different "looks" -- just what you might want for a cutting-edge postmodern glossy fashion magazine or hip, hot, new gossip show on the E! channel, but not for a hard-hitting, no-holds-barred exposé on the drug racket. There is, throughout the movie, a didactic interest in laying out How Things Work and How Things Are. And it can best be recommended as a sort of freshman survey course -- War on Drugs 101 -- if still on the level of a TV movie. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dennis Quaid, Miguel Ferrer, Amy Irving. (2000) — Duncan Shepherd

Rated R

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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