Review of Mr. Nice (2010) by Ana B — 07 Sep 2011

Biography of Howard Marks, one of the biggest marihuana smugglers of the 80's that started smoking while studying in Oxford. This is, basically, the story of a man that got bored with his teaching job and, almost unwittingly, got involved in drug smuggling through a contact he made in university.

And the rest is history, he got his highs and lows in life, and his lowest was when he was incarcerated for 7 years in a high security prison in USA separated from his wife and kids. You are surely expecting the stereotypical story about a heavily armed guy surrounded by bodyguards and bunny girls, but this is just the opposite, a family man deeply in love with his wife and good father to his 4 kids, no guns, no prostitutes, no hitmen.

This is the life of an "unconventional" and succesful businessman that just happen to trade with the wrong substance, a man that was also a contact of the MI6 for a while. This movie is interesting because it becomes a learning curve about marihuana, pacific drug dealers, spies, IRA financing and the failing judicial system.