American Made

Doug Liman is awesome and Tom Cruise rocks again. nice Barry Seal is a very story that is interesting and engaging enough to draw you in from the very beginning. The film benefits greatly from an interesting filter and at times I felt I was watching an episode of Narcos, which may well have been Doug Liman's inspiration. Working for the CIA and the narcos at the same time may be attractive, but it's a hard job that you can't escape or you'll die. The sex scene on the plane was awesome. A very entertaining film 80% (10/25/2017)

Clever and funny. This will stay around for a while. Cruise and Liman began to hit it off together on the Edge of Tomorrow and the chemistry continues in this free biography of smuggler, Barry Seal. Great comedy style, tongue-in-cheek to damning reminder of the insensitivity of the government. Perfect late 70s atmosphere, great music and two hours of good, honest fun. (09/02/2017)

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 modern Scorsese who is as easy to look at as an overstuffed wallet, but at the same time embodies the fact that nobody can tell a story as coherently as the legendary Marty. Barry Seal wants to deliver a very complex and balanced story, but ends up offering terribly little room for the supporting characters and brings nothing new to the game apart from some flashy work with self-aware editing and music. I enjoyed Cruise, the pace and the positive feeling, even if it didn't always quite fit with the events described, but after a while what has stuck in my mind are hilarious bits, not a hilarious film. A respectable 70%, if only for Sarah Wright's undeniable potential for the less accessible roles whose ideas she cheekily encourages. (12/04/2017)

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)