American Made
(Doug Liman)
Tom Cruise is a movie-star. No doubt about it. He's had a variety of films, dived into different genres and in one or two instance, maybe, just maybe disappeared behind the character. What comes with being a movie-star though, is for the most part people just see you and NOT the character. Tom Cruise, unfortunately, mostly falls into this category. People only see Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise. A charming, good-looking guy who does wild things. So when Cruise gets to play a charming guy who does wild things, the question I ask is...does he disappear into this role?
No. As good as he is, he's still Tom Cruise. I love Tom Cruise though, he is legitimately the one actor that comes to mind when I think of someone who always gives 110% to their films. If you were to ask me someone who is on the opposite side of that spectrum, I'd have to pick Bruce Willis. So if you're a Tom Cruise hater, at least admit to the fact that the guy loves to commit to the roles.
Barry Seal is a TWA pilot who is contacted by the CIA to do some covert missions while flying a plane. He agrees. Then he's asked to do more things...he agrees. Then he's asked by the drug cartel to do some things...he agrees. Then he's asked to do even more things from the CIA....he agrees. Do you see a pattern here? Seal apparently is so good at his job that even the White House asked him to do some things....he agreed. American Made is a film that falls into the category of it being too wild to be true, but it is true.
Cruise, as mentioned earlier, is charming here as Seal. He's not given many emotional scenes to stretch the character, but he's got enough entertaining sequences to give the audience a good time. Domhnall Gleeson is the CIA agent who recruits him and Sarah Wright plays the typical house wife with nothing to do but look pretty and be the main characters moral compass. Wright has the beautifully blonde generic face that I thought he was several different actresses before realizing that I hadn't really seen her in anything else before. Heck, she is credited as "Sexy Blonde" in the terrible rom-com Made of Honor. Yet she does a decent job with what little she is given.
Seal makes so much money that he has to dig holes in his backyard to bury bags of cash. Trouble is, when he starts digging, he accidentally digs up his previously buried bags of cash. To have so much money that you don't know what to do with it is something I and everyone else most likely dream of. Seal lived this life. Having that much cash does not go unnoticed though, which sets in motion more problems for the guy. Especially when his loser brother-in-law shows up and starts stealing some of the cash.
Cruise teams up once again with Liman, the two previously worked on the surprisingly awesome Edge of Tomorrow (or whatever it is they're calling it these days) and they successfully create another entertaining film here. Maybe too much fun? I feel like the stakes are never fully embraced here and the fun factor takes over. It's not until the last portion of the film do we feel any real sense of danger and it has nothing to do with flying the planes.
The film won't blow anyone away, nor will it leave you hating it. It's one of those "just-good" movies. You can either take that as a positive or a negative....or in line with the film and be just neutral.
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