American Made

Barry Seal is Tom Cruise's one man show. Totally. Actually, there's nothing here but Tom Cruise in a role that was tailor-made for him. As a likeable bastard who can work for three deadly organizations at the same time and still make a damn good living at it, he's downright brilliant. His Barry is an amoral bastard, but with such enormous charm that you'll be rooting for him even as he muddies the waters with Colombian cartel bosses, delivers weapons to Central American paramilitary organizations, and buries his money in suitcases in the backyard. Barry has style, and thanks to Doug Liman and his brisk direction, his adventures are quite watchable. And it's only at the end that you realise that it's actually playing it too safe, that Barry's sort of getting away with everything, lacking a significant antagonist, conflict or even problem, and that it's not actually very interesting. Cruise fans will probably enjoy it to the max, others will be treated to a stylish, broadly entertaining but more or less pointless film. (07/27/2018)

A worse feature episode of Narcos, made in a relaxed but inconsistently executed style of The Wolf of Wall Street or the Lord of War. So, it never finds its own path and so it crouches in the shadow of the above. What would help is a better-built storyline, some emotions and a better executed shift to more serious department at the end, but purely as 80s stylized relaxed biographical nonsense, it's not really bad at all and it's definitely fun. Take my word for it. Especially thanks to Cruise, who is a great fit to this comic conceived role of a passive macho dude. Partly because he doesn't try to stylize himself into the real Barry Seal and he just plays himself. (08/24/2017)

A pretty enjoyable film starring a living testament to the effectiveness of American plastic surgery. These biographical films are often only barely scratched by reality, but then there’s also black humor, action and suspense, which is a combination that works for me. I've never been a huge Tom Cruise fan, but I must admit the role of Barry Seal was a perfect fit for him. Plus, I even got a good dose of 70s and 80s retro vibes, including the soundtrack, so I quite enjoyed the film. (01/31/2018)

It's a pity that Cruise's best role in recent years doesn't come in a slightly better (understand: better written, built and with a dramatic point) film. American Made flies too smoothly. Especially in the first half, one almost prays for artificial turbulence. But Spinelli's screenplay is a flat track composed of repetitive episodes carried by Tom's charisma and a ready-to-use 80s vibe. Although Liman tries to decently direct the film, he doesn't pull out any extra drive with his 80s magical processes. Fortunately, Cruise enjoys his everyday crook, who generally doesn't ask too many questions, so that the viewer can enjoy him as well. American Made is a solid, but too long episode of Narcos. The film owes almost everything to the Netflix series, but unfortunately also can't cover its limits when it is compared to it. A serious historical topic is thus dismissed by a few shortcuts and jokes, which we know almost literally from Narcos. But the series managed to unexpectedly make a mark. Barry tries to do it in the end, but rather harmlessly. Why ****? Because Tom. So the 4th piece from pure fandom. (08/25/2017)

American Made is a funny, fast-paced and, thanks mainly to the excellent Tom Cruise, a really cool chill-out movie that does not try to be dramatic. Which surprises me, because had its satire been a little more piercing, it could have reached the heights of Martin Scorsese. (08/31/2017)