The sordid history of drug trafficking in Miami is sodden with seemingly endless quantities of dope, money, and corpses. Documentary filmmaker Billy Corben divides his absorbing account of crime and consequences into three distinct sections: outlining the basics of cocaine importation and distribution; analyzing the detrimental societal effects of a city awash in illegal cash; and cataloging the runaway violence that accompanies the inevitable drug wars.

A procession of flamboyant dealers and paid assassins wax nostalgic about the drug trade, while police detectives and crime reporters supply the social commentary.

The “stars” include major cocaine dealer Jon Roberts and expert transporter Mickey Munday, whose reminiscences bridge the period during which a once-sleepy retirement town became into a glitzy playground for fast-living Eurotrash.

And if the hard-driving score sounds appropriately familiar, it’s due to composer Jan Hammer, who also provided the rat-tat-tat music for the ‘80s hit series Miami Vice. (Barnes & Noble)

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More of a real-life exploitation film than a bonafide documentary, Cocaine Cowboys is tailor-made for anyone who worships Brian De Palma’s Scarface. It’s no surprise that this slick, energetic film found a niche audience among crime-obsessed hip-hoppers; from a journalistic perspective it’s an irresponsible mess, but director Billy Corben is obviously more interested in capturing the thrills and danger of the drug trade that transformed Miami, Florida during the Miami Vice era of the late 1970s and ’80s.

Corben has no particular interest in seriously examining the sociopolitical implications of Miami’s drug-fueled rise and fall, so Cocaine Cowboys lives up to its title by focusing on some of the most colorful, daring, and outrageously successful survivors of that era, when tons of cocaine were distributed through Miami by the kingpins of Colombia’s notorious Medellin cartel.

Chief among the many interviewees are Jon Roberts and Mickey Munday (who personally transported over $2 billion worth of cocaine into Miami) and Jorge “Rivi” Ayala, a convicted drug-trade assassin now serving consecutive life terms in prison.

They’re lively storytellers who are egotistically eager to share their coke-tales, and Corben’s only too happy to capture their exploits on film, up to and including the dubious use of violent reenactments that could easily serve as a recruitment film for Tony Montana wannabes. (Amazon)