Fast-paced and zany action-drama is Tom Cruise's best movie in YEARS

Rating: 7/10 (30 September 2017)

"American Made" (2017 release; 115 min.) brings the story of Barry Seal. After a clever 1970s montage featuring Jimmy Carter's infamous feel-bad speech, the movie introduces us to Seal, a TWA pilot Who is not adverse to shaking things up a bit (literally causing turbulence). It's not long before Seal is approached by a CIA agent to do clandestine reconnaissance in South America. It's not long before Seal gets involved in the Medellin drug cartel in Colombia... At this point we're not even 15 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.
Couple of comments: this movie reunites director Liman with Tom Cruise, who previously teamed up on the well-received "Edge of Tomorrow" (for which a sequel is being planned). Here they bring us ("Based on a true story", we are reminded at the beginning of the movie) the story of a TWA pilot turned CIA informant turned drug runner. The movie is divided up in chapters, from "CIA '78" to "Colombia '80" and so on. While the subject matter is quite serious and Barry Seal not particularly likable per se, the movie is fast-paced and zany, and is helped tremendously by Tom Cruise's charming and very effective performance. The supporting cast are for me relatively unknowns, including Sara Wright as Barry's wife, and Domhnall Gleeson as the CIA handler. A minus point is the incessant use of hand-held cameras as well as the use of extreme close-ups. Enough already! We get that it is an action movie! There are tons of great song placements in the movie, and when George Harrison's "Wah Wah" plays of the closing moments and the end titles, it perfectly captures much of the movie's ebullience.
"American Made" opened wide this weekend, and I was looking forward to seeing it. The Saturday early evening screening where I saw this at here in Cincinnati was attended poorly (about 20 people in a huge auditorium), much to my surprise. Perhaps strong word-of-mouth can generate a stronger box office performance in theaters. Regardless, this is bound to find a wider audience on VOD and eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. If you are in the mood for a quick-paced and charming drug-smuggling action movie that is Tom Cruise's best movie in, literally, years, you cannot go wrong with "American Made"