Stylish, funny and a roller coaster of a ride!

Rating: 7/10 (27 August 2017)

Lets get the record straight I personally would watch anything that Tom Cruise would appear in, over the past years his films have been solidly good with a few speed bumps along the way. Ever since hearing the story of this film and knowing that this film was entering production I was really keen to see what Doug Liman and Tom Cruise would do and they didn't disappoint.
Doug Liman is a great director and that is shown very well in this film, the whole direction as a film is beautifully stylised for the time period that it covers. Liman makes this rather crazy, shambolic and eye opening film a real roller coaster of emotions, this is even thought the film only has really one to three main characters with a lot of "B characters". At heart this film is a character driven story, obviously its based on true events of Barry Seal, but it is set against this adrenaline filled underground drug world. The directing throughout the film is impeccable there is nothing to fault Liman on and it shows he was desperately keen on using as many real planes as possible some of the aircraft shots are really cool. Liman gets top marks definitely one of his better films.
Now onto the man himself Tom Cruise, some people hate him, how? don't ask me. However the majority including myself love his work and as the older he has got the more adventurous he has got in the roles he has taken. I read in a article the other day and it said that "Cruise is ageing in the opposite direction, he is getting better with age". I believe that quote fully 100% and this film demonstrates it as well, he once again some how he is at the top of his game. Barry Seal is an interesting character because weirdly you want him to succeed which is strange, especially considering that the CIA basically abandoned him. Cruise is never out of character, wow i can't believe that even crossed my mind, he is witty, charming and has a lot of heart. Anyone should just see this film for Cruise and I suppose that is the point and the main attraction for most people, his performance is nothing ground breaking however it demonstrates flexibility in his ever changing résumé of work. I can't remember the last time he turned in a bad perfor..........cough.....oh who remembers the jack reacher sequel, see I can't even remember the name of it....
The story of the film is heart pounding from start to finish but as I've mentioned it has this down to earth quality to it that can really resonate with audiences because at the end of the day Seal is just doing it for his family. Its strange because in reality I should not be rooting for Seal he did a lot of bad things for the US government but the qualities and traits of the man just strangely outweigh all that was bad. It is quite unbelievable that this was going on, OK it was before my time so maybe to the older more experience viewer it might not be so shocking, but for me it quite staggering how the US government and the CIA were operating. It is one of the most fascinating stories that I have heard of in quite a while it is really eye opening.
75% out of 100 or 7.5 out of 10, I really wish IMDb would change their scoring system, sorry back to American Made a solid film and really enjoyable. Has got good directing, editing, score and it has probably one of if not the most dependable actor that has lived in it. Not to sure why the film, in the UK, has a 15 rating I suppose its the subject matter but its not a dark, bloody or depressing film, I think its a real roller coaster of a journey with a lot of heart and a few good laughs. It is definitely worth your time!