Tom Cruise playing Tom Cruise

Rating: 7/10 (29 August 2017)

A good film if somewhat predictable. Certainly a massive improvement on 'the mummy' (although that would not be hard)
Another 'Hollywood based on a true story' I don't know how close to 'a true story' it is, but I have seen enough great chasms of 'artistic license' to take 'based on a true story' as akin to saying "once upon a time".
Barry Seal (Cruise) is a pilot persuaded by the CIA to front an aviation company to fly dodgy intelligence stuff in and out of the USA .
Drug cartels find he's flying in and out and persuade him to also run drugs. Seal starts to do very well out of the arrangement
Then as the CIA also want him to run guns to supply rebels in Nicaragua his operation expands dramatically as does the drug smuggling.
The operation gets bigger and bigger and Seal is unable to launder the money such is the huge influx of cash .
With numerous police agencies on his tail he is persuaded by the govt to collect evidence on the drug smuggling and betray the cartel (to prevent a long jail sentence)
He duly does this but (of course) the cartel exacts their revenge
It's similar to several other 'drug cartel' films in many respects, there is nothing particularly original or surprising in the film, however it is solid entertainment. 7.5/10