Barry Seal - Only in America

In director Doug Liman who Tom Cruise has worked with a few times, Cruise has found someone who he could loosen up with a little, make a lower budget colourful flashy film where Cruise can be a little chaotic and free wheeling.

American Made is a fast paced film. A wily, naughty mischievous risk taker Barry Seal who goes from being a TWA pilot to a CIA contractor who ends up supplying arms to trafficking drugs for Escobar to training an illegal right wing Nicaraguan army.

Seal makes so much money he does not know what to do with it or even hide it. Of course there is a downside, eventually they are all after him and even his cunning cannot evade them all. Pursued by the FBI, Police, DEA, various cartels, Seal really has nowhere to run or hide.

Cruise seems to be enjoying himself on screen, Liman keeps the film moving but in a sense it is a familiar story. Once Seal makes it big, has a few bumps along the road, you even get that scene when you know the decline in his fortunes will start.

I do love Tom Cruise movies...he is great... but in this instance....this movie is yet another remake....it should be called American Re maid....the original with the late Dennis Hopper was more believable and funnier.......Tom should keep his flying movies to Top Gun and its sequels.....So watch this movie with a grain of salt and than go watch Double Crossed...and tell me what you think... I believe you will be pleasantly surprised!!1

While we all eagerly await the release of the recently announced Top Gun sequel, Tom Cruise's latest slice of polished Hollywood entertainment American Made, allows us all to see what it's like when Maverick becomes a little naughty in his retirement from flying fighter jets, verbally sparring with Iceman and making out with Kelly McGillis.

Re-teaming with his Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, American Made is a relentlessly energized and seriously fun examination of the true life story of American Airlines pilot Barry Seal, who gave up his life as an everyday pilot to not only become a CIA recruited pilot delivering messages, guns and various other treats to South American contacts, but a drug runner for the Pablo Escobar Columbian drug trade, which makes for a wild ride that would be utterly unbelievable were it not in fact based on truth.

Fair warning to all, Liman and his leading man are totally uninterested in giving a dry history lesson of Seal's exploits, as American Made sees the two Hollywood heavy hitters instead turn their trajectory towards delivering a heightened and often over the top examination of these events and with Liman bringing his Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow expertise with him to the event and with Cruise seemingly having the most fun his had in years, the risk to go for something different other than an awards baiting or dialogue heavy expose has paid off hugely, with American Made easily becoming one of the year's most purely fun and enjoyable rides.

At almost 60 years of age you'd be rightfully thinking it's about time that Cruise take a seat back and enjoy a more quiet time in his career but the unstoppable and enthusiastic leading man is having a blast here bringing Seal to life.

In almost every scene of the film, Cruise and Liman continue on with their rapport that they built in Edge of Tomorrow and Liman should be commended for bringing out Cruise's natural talents for comedy and when mixed with his easy going charisma that has made him such a beloved acting figure, Seal offers Cruise one of his best and most interesting roles in his long and varied career, no small feat when you consider the quality of his often underestimated C.V.

American Made's frenetic and sometimes scattered focus may detract from some viewers experiences and those looking for a more sombre take on a no doubt very serious topic may be disappointed but Liman and his cast's (that includes great bit turns from the likes of Sarah Wright as Seal's wife Lucy and Caleb Landry Jones as Lucy's dim-witted brother Bubba) ability to extract the absurdness and craziness of this whole situation and turn it into such a fun piece of entertainment should be a winner in the majority of cases, much like Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street did.

Final Say –

With Cruise on top form and Liman instilling his film with a breathtaking amount of energy, American Made is a pure piece of cinematic entertainment and an awesomely fun companion piece to Cruise's other well-known plane centred star vehicle.

4 future presidents out of 5

A great story perfectly representing those years and with a stunning performance by Tom Cruise. I would say one of the best movie ever, in this genre, which is midway between a CIA based film and a biopic one. Barry's narration, delivered direct to camera, takes the form of a series of clips from a fuzzy home video supposedly shot in the mid-1980s, laying out the historical background in a dense fashion (he pretends at one point to confuse two countries) which seems most directly indebted to Adam McKay's The Big Short. The biggest coup is the casting of Cruise, who functions as a pure icon, recycling all his usual mannerisms – the grin, the hand gestures – and even revisiting his past as a pilot in Top Gun. The catch is that his depthless showboating for once seems intended as anything but likable.

American Made was a good watch - the story keeps a good steady momentum, the direction and editing are vibrant and dynamic. It has the vibes of something like Wolf of Wall St or a Guy Ritchie film, where despite the nature of the events you find yourself rooting for a criminal and laughing at the black comedy of how things unfold.

But it stays firmly in the mode of fast-paced 'zany' without ever really digging into emotions, desperation, or any human reflection. Barry Seal as a character remains a breezy, zany blur. Its just that kind of film. I think Cruise has a lot to do with that - his vanity as an actor, having to be seen as either confused- smiley or cool-intense in any given moment limits his courage to do anything else (Born on the Fourth of July was a real anomaly for him in terms of range).

Its as entertaining as any two episodes of Narcos - but without Narcos' complexity and variance. Good but not great, definitely worthy of a viewing.