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.

If you ask anyone to list the top 10 film actors, chance is that "Tom Cruise" would make many people's lists. He's in everything isn't he?  Well, actually, no. Looking at his IMDb history, he's only averaged just over a movie per year for several years. I guess he's just traditionally made a big impact with the films he's done. This all rather changed in the last year with his offerings of the rather lacklustre "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" (FFF) and the pretty dreadful "The Mummy" (Ff) as one of this summer's big blockbuster disappointments. So Thomas Cruise Mapother IV was sorely in need of a upward turn and fortunately "American Made" delivers in spades.

"Based on a True Story" this is a biopic on the life of Barry Seal, a hot shot 'maverick' (pun intended) TWA pilot who gets drawn into a bizarre but highly lucrative spiral of gun- and drug-running to and from Central America at the behest of a CIA operative Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson). All this is completely mystifying to Barry's wife Lucy (Sarah Wright) who is, at least not initially, allowed to be 'in' on the covert activities.

The film is a roller-coaster ride of unbelievable action from beginning to end. In the same manner as you might have thought "that SURELY can't be true" when watching Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can", this thought constantly flits through your mind. At each turn Seal can't believe his luck, and Cruise brilliantly portrays the wide-eyed astonishment required. This is a role made for him. 

Also delivering his best performance in years is Domhnall Gleeson ("Ex Machina", "Star Wars: The Force Awakens") as the CIA man with the (whacky) plan. Large chunks of the film are powered by his manic grin.

As an actress, Sarah Wright is new to me but as well as being just stunningly photogenic she works with Cruise really well (despite being 20 years his junior - not wanting to be ageist, but this is the second Cruise film in a row I've pointed that out!)). Wright also gets my honorary award for the best airplane sex scene this decade!

Written by Gary Spinelli (this being only his second feature) the script is full of wit and panache and - while almost certainly (judging from wiki) stretches the truth as far as Seal's cash-storage facilities - never completely over-eggs the pudding. 

Doug Liman ("Jason Bourne", "Edge of Tomorrow") directs brilliantly, giving space among the action for enough character development to make you invest in what happens to the players. The 80's setting is lovingly crafted with a garish colour-palette with well-chosen documentary video inserts of Carter, Reagan, Oliver Stone, George Bush and others. It also takes really chutzpah to direct a film that (unless I missed it) had neither a title nor any credits until the end. 

The only vaguely negative view I had about this film is that it quietly glosses over the huge pain, death and suffering that the smuggled drugs will be causing to thousands of Americans under the covers. And this mildly guilty thought lingers with you after the lights come up to slightly - just slightly - take the edge off the fun.   Stylish, thrilling, moving and enormously funny in places, this is action cinema at its best. A must see film. 

(For the full graphical review of the film please visit http://bob- the- movie-man.com. Thanks.)

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

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.

Ever wondered what it would be like to see Tom Cruise taking a break from his usual Sci-Fi & Impossible series "avatar". Well, here is your answer - It gets even more exciting and entertaining. This is Tom Cruise's real life take on the impossible series where Barry Seal replaces Ethan Hunt and CIA as the agency, which dictates the terms. It's just that Barry loves to go with the flow and without any intention of getting involved with anything that seems out of his league and this is something each one of us can relate to. He is your usual guy who happens to be a pilot and wants to make some extra cash with every extra mile. So what's wrong with it? Well nothing is wrong when you do it for the right guys, and nothing gets more exciting and dangerous when those right guys turn out to be CIA.

What is even more amusing and entertaining to watch is the fact that despite having no choice left but to cooperate with CIA, "Barry Seal never says no" to any offer (even if it comes from any drug lord) that helps him maintain his cash flow that obviously was becoming unmanageable for him by every passing day. Although, I must admit that it was quite a fun to watch him trying to manage millions of cash that he had no idea how to spend.

You will definitely enjoy watching Tom cruise as Barry Seal who uses CIA to get his end of the bargain (and they thought that they were the only smart guys who live in one of the greatest countries of the world).

If you want to go on an adventure trip, go watch this movie and you will understand what Tom Cruise really means when he says, "I am just a gringo who always delivers".