One of 2017's most underrated films is a great entertainment

Rating: 10/10 (17 March 2018)

Doug Liman's entertaining "American Made" tells the somewhat true story of Barry Seal, a former TWA pilot, who, during the 1980's, was 'coerced' into flying spy missions for the CIA before becoming a drug smuggler for a Colombian drug cartel. Then, to avoid prison, he becomes an informant for the DEA, and winds up slipping further and further into a complex web of nefarious enterprises that makes it virtually impossible for him to get out of.
Playing Seal with a flippant sarcasm, Tom Cruise displays the multi-leveled range of a superior character actor, but what really makes this film work is Liman's tightrope-balancing act between outrageous humor and the serious, even dangerous, reality of Seal's situation. In fact, the film brings to mind the best of Martin Scorsese's work, e.g., "Goodfellas", or, more precisely, Scorsese's less accomplished "Wolf of Wall Street". Particularly notable is the film's digital photography that employs an exaggerated sun-drenched color saturation to the point of comic-book surrealism.
Although taking liberty with the facts (Seal did not crash-land into a suburban neighborhood), this is a cinematic ride that ranks with the best action thrillers of recent years. And how it eventually leads into the Iran-Contra criminal escapades of the Reagan Administration in 1986 should provide an eye-opening history lesson to viewers who may not know much about that shady era in American history. (Interesting trivia: Cruise actually does his own flying in the film.) A first-rate entertainment, and Liman's career best.