Fitfully-amusing but overly-long, star-driven docu-dramedy

Rating: 6/10 (9 December 2019)

In this largely imaginary semicomedy-biopic, Tom Cruise plays drug trafficker/gunrunner/DEA informant Barry Seal. Cruise plays his usual lovable-rogue shtick (although without the over-the-top stunts and fights) and the rest of the cast, most of whom are playing 2D fictional or composite characters, are OK (although as Barry's wife Lucy, Sarah Wright looks like she parachuted in from the 2000s). The story is pretty farfetched and the movie is somewhat repetitious and too long for the material on-hand. Director Doug Liman summed up the historical accuracy of the film by describing it as "a fun lie based on a true story", so anyone expecting anything other than a light-weight Tom Cruise comedy-adventure-fantasy, caveat emptor.