American Made (2017)

I was lucky to get an advanced screening. First off, at least it kept my attention the whole way through. I had previously seen Cruise in the "Mummy" movie recently released and was not impressed with his acting there.

In this movie he returned to form and therefore the story-line was far more plausible. I say story-line, but in reality it is one of those docu-drama's, being based on fact. I wonder how much was dramatization as there were some parts where you would ask "did this sh*t really happen?!"

Would I be inclined to add it to my DVD collection, no. It was good as a one time showing. I suspect the length of it worked somewhat against it. A long movie needs to build up to a crescendo, and whilst this had lots of action it never seemed to hit that top note.

Fmovies: I had virtually no expectations for this movie other than a trailer I had seen.

Turns out the entire movie is like a trailer. The whole movie was a series of jump-cuts from scene to scene. There were a ton of montages of Cruise flying, smuggling, etc. It felt like the movie tried to hard to not get bogged down in details, but as a result I found the movie hard to connect with. It didn't help that Cruise's character doesn't have much of a persona. He likes to fly and has questionable morals (such as being willing to smuggle drugs) but there is not much there beyond that.

I think they wanted to show that he loved his family but he made so many questionable decisions that put them at risk that it was hard to like his character. Plus some people have described this as a comedy but it totally lacked any laugh out loud moments or even internal chuckles.

I feel like this story could have been better told with more of a cohesive story line, rather than having Cruise montage his way through it all. It felt like a 2 hour trailer to me.

I gave 5 stars because the movie is somewhat entertaining, but I feel like it fell short of it's potential and I wouldn't watch it a 2nd time.

I decided to watch this movie because Tom Cruise was in it, but little did I know what I was in for.

Now, I can't claim to have much interest in the drug trade history of America, so the story here appealed only very little to me. But I still stuck with the movie to the end.

This was nowhere near being one of the best of Tom Cruise movies to be honest. Sure, he was putting on a great performance, but the storyline was just working as an anchor here. I believe that the movie was based on real events, which just didn't help to boost the movie's appeal for me.

I will say that they had a fairly good ensemble of acting performers together for the movie, though I didn't even recognize most of them. That was a good thing, because I do like seeing new actors and actresses in movies, as they are not already instantly associated with other movies or roles they have done before.

This is the type of movie that you watch once and never again, because it just doesn't have enough contents to support multiple viewings.

American Made fmovies. 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

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")

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.)