Barry Seal: American Traffic

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.

In 1978, the skilled and ambitious TWA pilot Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) smuggles Cuban cigars to increase his income. Out of the blue, he is contacted by the CIA agent Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson), who asks him to work for the CIA photographing facilities over Central America using a state-of-art small plane. Soon Barry contacts General Noriega as a courier for the CIA and is contacted by the Medellin Cartel that wants him to transport drugs to the USA. Then Schafer asks Barry to carry weapons for the Contras in Nicaragua. Barry invites pilots that are his friends and plots routes to smuggle drugs for the cartel. The CIA closes eyes to the scheme and Barry becomes richer and richer. He uses the Arkansas town Mena to laundry his money. But the DEA and the FBI are tracking him down. When the CIA shuts down the scheme, Barry is left alone and arrested by the agencies. What will happen to his family and him?

"American Made" is an American action movie based on a true story and told like a comedy despite the seriousness of the situation, with the American government interfering this time with the Central America nations. The plot is engaging and entertaining and the despicable Barry Seal is depicted as a family man by Tom Cruise that has good performance. The background of corruption, political interference, trafficking of weapons and drugs are treated like something usual by the story that can not be taken seriously. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Feito na América" ("American Made")

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.

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".