Tom Cruise flies high as a fictional Barry Seal reaching heights he hasn't in years!

Rating: 9/10 (5 February 2018)

Well, after Fargo turned out to be a totally made up story, I'm sure that most people have doubts on this movie. The back story of Pablo Escobar flying in coke to the US is true, the Oliver North selling the weapons via the Contra and the Iranians is true, the drug corruption of Col. Noreiga is all true, many elements are true as far as the back story, which makes for a great story. Actually, there was a Barry Seal, who did smuggle drugs, so that's why this story works well. Plus they really nailed the period dress, cars and boats that made for a great atmosphere. Plus there are funny tie-ins like George Bush, Ronald Reagan and even Bill Clinton. There was even some debate whether George Bush, ex head of the CIA had Barry killed or was it Escobar in a book by Shaun Attwood.
So was this better than Mummy?
Definitely, better. It shows the difference a well developed plot and characters can make in a movie. Plus I think this role really is a good fit for Tom Cruise, since we all know him as Top Gun. We all naturally assume he's a good pilot, so it always helps to have that background. The pilot Barry Seal is this bored TWA pilot approached by the CIA to start photographing all the USSR/Cuba communist supported troops in Central America. Of course he jumps at the opportunity having grown bored in a job similar to what we all have in life.
How well does Sarah Wright play his wife Lucy? She helps to build up the common man wife of a pilot for the movie. She is actually from Kentucky, so that really helps give the Old South feel to the movie. Barry has to convince her of his nefarious dealings with the CIA despite losing their vaunted health care. Not sure if that's a jab at private health care, but she makes the sauce of the marriage work in the movie and is a great partner in crime for Barry.
One of the best contrasts that really shows both of their original country roots is her cousin JB, who goes on to create endless trouble for the two. He really defines country stupid all around, but especially fits in Mene, Arkansas for the most part.
How was the Pablo Escobar introduction handled? I think for the small part he plays in the movie, the actors playing his gang are impressive. They are the ultimate downfall of Barry, since he can't untangle himself as one of the key suppliers for Pablo in the movie. Barry looks aside the danger in the first bust, where he ends up losing a whole tooth in a Colombian jail. Luckily, his CIA pal Monty Schafer shows up and bails him out.
The real Seal made daily deposits of $50,000 to his Honduran account through the early '80s. The filmmakers show him frantically burying duffle bags of cash in his backyard until he runs out of room because, well, that's funnier. Liman and Cruise want the audience to have a good time watching Seal play one side against the other. So comic scenarios are concocted out of whole cloth. In the film, for example, Seal pays regular visits to Manuel Noriega to pick up intel and deliver government payoffs. In real life, he may have used one of Noriega's runways.
Nonetheless, American Made is an undeniably good time. It's briskly paced and amusingly absurdist. Cruise has rarely been as magnetic, perhaps because he's portraying a human being and not the kind of bulletproof action figure he's played for most of the past two decades. One thing the film isn't, though, is thoughtful.
Even when Seal finds himself at the center of what would become the Iran-Contra scandal or is saved from jail by a last-minute call from president Bill Clinton, Liman and co. never pause to give events time to take on meaning. While that's a legitimate artistic choice, it's also a missed opportunity.
It's fine to make a screwball comedy with government agencies running in circles like bureaucratic Marx Brothers. But I can't help imagining what this movie might have been if Liman had cut the engine occasionally, allowing viewers a moment to reflect on its ominous mix of Hollywood and history.
With all the talk of making the country great again these days, we could use a wake-up call. Liman's film almost offers an unsettling reminder of the nightmare "Morning in America" often was.