American Made is quick, entertaining, and Tom Cruise is back again!!!

Rating: 7/10 (29 September 2017)

American Made is fun, fast paced, and Tom Cruise is playing a character that is different from what he usually does. From the director Doug Liman, who also did Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise and showed they can have fun with that. Well same goes for American Made, were it follows Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) a bored airline pilot, who causes some shakiness with the plane to wake some of his passengers for some laughs. He is approached by Schafer (Domhall Gleeson), who wants to recruit Barry to work for the CIA in flying over South America in a plane to snap pictures. Evantually, Barry gets caught up with the Medellin Cartel, who recruits Barry to fly cocaine back to the U.S. With Schafer being blind sided with the drug smuggling. Barry is making plenty of money that he can barely keep hold of such as having it all put away in a room filled shed or even having it buried in his back yard. Soon enough, the CIA convinces Barry to run guns to the Contras. While the operation may be expanding with Barry having his own airport runaway in a small town of Mena, Arkansas. While the FBI, DEA, and TFA are hot on Barry's trail.
The film is very fast moving. It does goes by briefly on Barry's life events. A moment of him being an airline pilot and bored with his life. Then, it flashes to him being recruited by Schafer. And starting a family with his wife. This is the type of movie that could have last longer if it had development to the characters. But director Doug Liman kept the pace rolling, and had everything moving at a brisk pace. It is also quite fun to see Barry Allen handling some difficult situations being placed in hostile countries. From working with the cartel to smuggling drugs over. He is a skilled pilot. That flies low to wait out the DEA planes that are following him to waste fuel. To even taking off on short runaways. The scenes with seeing him expanding on his operation in bringing in more money than Mena is worth in the town is fun and entertaining.
Tom Cruise is an underrated actor. Sure, he is great in his action movies like Mission Impossible, etc. Seeing him playing a character that is vulnerable and not a skilled fighter is fun to see. He can portray the character very well.
American Made may not be a typical Tom Cruise action movie. But more of fun suspenseful thrills of seeing Barry working his way to the top as a delivery man pilot. It never slows down or gets boring. There are some funny moments with the character.
The things that did not work with the movie. I ll have to say it is the development. There is none with the movie. If there was, it was shadowed by the quick moving pace. The movie goes over the several years quickly. A moment were Barry and his wife are living in a fixer upper safe house and a minute later, Barry and his wife have plenty of money and a remodeled home, living in luxury.
Another thing is the cinematography must have been hand-held. There was a lot of close ups with the characters faces. And a lot of shakiness for small dramatic scenes which felt unnecessary. Sure, the technique is done to bring some kind of realism or build the suspense. But it felt overdone in the film. Sure as well it wont be recognized for great cinematography work.
Overall, American Made is a fairly well crime thriller about Barry Seal and what he has done from being a bored pilot to working for the CIA, DEA, and the cartel. The direction is fast paced, fun, and entertaining. Tom Cruise was great. It may not a memorable film for a forgettable plot from the lack of development. Or its poor camera work with the film. But it was fun.
I rate the film 3.5 out of 5 stars.