American Made review: Tom Cruise reunites with his Edge Of Tomorrow director Doug Liman for his second big film of summer, following The Mummy. Let’s hope its not a case of deja vu.
American Made review, Paul Heath.
Image: Universal Pictures
Tom Cruise leads the cast of this true story of a Louisiana-based TWA passenger plane pilot who ends up switching careers for a job with the CIA during the height of the South American drug business in the 1980s.
Cruise is Barry Seal, a married father, bored of his mundane life of transporting customers around the United States daily – one who has no issues in causing unnecessary turbulence on board just to break up the monotony. His life changes for good when he gets caught red-handed by a CIA agent named Shafer (Domhnall Gleeson), for importing Cuban cigars from Canada. Keen to capitalise on his opportunistic tendencies, his will to always get the job done, as well as his all-important piloting skills, Shafer recruits him into the ‘company’ to provide reconnaissance on the burgeoning communist threat in Central America, but soon climbs the ladder to head up one of the biggest covert CIA operations in its history.
While all this is going on, Seal chances upon another business opportunity – using his empty plane on the return leg of his South American flight to transport hundreds of kilos of cocaine into the United States for the infamous, up and coming Medellin drug cartel, headed up by Pablo Escobar.
The film covers the years that Seal was active in his exploits for the U.S. government, and for the criminal underworld.
Image: Universal Pictures
American Made is one of those movies that you know you’re going to enjoy within its opening five minutes. Director Doug Liman offers up instant nostalgia with a VHS tape-like introduction which starts with the studio logo, but continues throughout the film with Cruise’s many pieces to camera and littering of archive news footage.
The film is a well-paced affair with not a hint of fat throughout, Cruise on top form in his best character-driven role for well over a decade. Of course, he’s every bit the movie star, but here a sweary, more damaged character is visible for Hollywood’s golden boy to fill the shoes of.
Related: The Mummy review
Reuniting with a director he clearly works well with, following the likes of Edge Of Tomorrow, Cruise’s unique flair and charisma is matched with grit and tons of comedy in a role quite unlike any other he’s played before.
He is, of course, reinforced by a wonderful cast of solid players, including the superb Sarah Wright as his wife Lucy, a brilliant Gleeson, who is clearly having the time of his life, and a multitude of support from the likes of Caleb Landry Jones as his brother-in-law and fly-in-the-ointment Bubba, a criminally under-used Jesse Plemons, and many more.
Image: Universal Pictures
Liman keeps us engrossed throughout with some wonderful Goodfellas-esque freeze frames, energetic editing and some thrilling action set-pieces, and while this may come across as film much lighter in tone than something Martin Scorsese may have constructed from the same source material, it all works rather wonderfully and makes for an entertaining ride.
American Made is another of those films which seems to be getting a softer opening than some this summer, but another example of one which makes going to movies an enjoyable and rewarding experience, something there’s been a lack of in 2017 in general.
Easily Tom Cruise’s best film for years, American Made is a gun-toting, double-crossing, drug-fuelled crazy ride that’s well worth your time and cash.
American Made review by paul Heath, August 2017.
American Made is released in UK cinemas from August 25th.
