AMERICAN MADE

Director / Doug Liman (THE WALL, EDGE OF TOMORROW, THE BOURNE IDENTITY)
Stars/ Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright and Caleb Landry Jones

After a performance in this year’s remake of THE MUMMY that can only be described as being scarier than Scientology itself, Tom Cruise does earn back a healthy percentage of respect with this fine showing in the unbelievable true story, AMERICAN MADE.

We all experience some highs and lows throughout the longevity of our professional careers. For Barry Seal (Cruise), who is a pilot that is recruited into the CIA by agent Monty Schafer (Gleeson), not even the sky is a limitation to the highs that will be achieved in the course of his employment. But as they say, what goes up must come down. AMERICAN MADE exposes the details behind Barry Seal’s covert assignments, which are all connected to the political landscape of the United States during the late 70’s and early 80’s.

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The majority of you are probably well aware of the secret dealings and the scandal that rocked The White House during President Reagan’s reign. Even if there are no new revelations in this area of the story for you, AMERICAN MADE is entirely fascinating to watch courtesy of its lead character’s mind blowing involvement and the outrageous trajectory his life and career take. Seriously, the manner in which this man is pinballed around by several reputable agencies simply needs to be seen in order to be believed!

Director Doug Liman, who previously collaborated with Cruise in EDGE OF TOMORROW, has skilfully produced AMERICAN MADE to be a slick and amusing affair. Considering that the situations Barry Seal faces warrant a tense viewing experience, the fact that Liman has rightly identified an opportunity to apply levity to Seal’s precarious journey is credibility to his vision and execution as director. The screenplay by Gary Spinelli, which was featured on the 2014 Black List of most liked unproduced film scripts, articulates all of its remarkable detail with real precision and clarity. Complementing the writing work is the perfectly pitched pacing, several impressively filmed flight sequences and the locations used for filming (in Colombia and the U.S).

AMERICAN MADE is the more chilled-out and less action-packed cousin of WAR DOGS.

3 ½ stars

On a side note, a small mention should go to a couple of crew members who tragically lost their lives on the last day of filming in a plane crash. Rest in peace, stunt pilot Alan D. Purwin and co-pilot Carlos Berl.