American Made (2017) [Blu-ray]
Action | Biography | Comedy | Crime | Drama | History | Thriller
Tagline: It’s not a crime if you're doing it for the good guys….
American Made, Tom Cruise reunites with his Edge of Tomorrow director, Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith), in this international escapade based on the outrageous (and real) exploits of a hustler and pilot
unexpectedly recruited by the CIA to run one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. history.
Storyline: Barry Seal was just an ordinary pilot who worked for TWA before he was recruited by the CIA in 1978. His work in South America eventually caught the eye of the Medellín Cartel, associated with Pablo Escobar, who needed
a man with his skill set. Barry became a drug trafficker, gun smuggler and money launderer. Soon acquiring the title, 'The gringo that always delivers'. Written by Viir khubchandani
Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, December 19, 2017 Director Doug Liman's (The Bourne Identity) American Made is "based on" the story of Barry Seal, a man whose career as a TWA pilot took an interesting
turn -- and dozens more -- after taking on a job flying reconnaissance for the CIA. The film, by all accounts -- Liman's included -- plays fast and loose with Seal's story. It's more "inspired by" than anything else. The core center of the film may ring
more or less true, but careful window dressing and amplified drama are added in abundance throughout. The result is a film that may not be a straight retelling of an interesting story from the Reagan era but certainly a fun, efficient, crafty, and catchy
movie that satisfies the itch for a zipping, zagging, high energy character and period film.
Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) is a hotshot pilot for TWA. He was once the youngest flier in the fleet and entertains himself on long, slogging trips by jerking the plane about and startling his passengers. One day, he's approached by a CIA operative named Monty
Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) who propositions him to fly reconnaissance over hotspots in Central America. Taken by the opportunity to fly a fast plane and escape the rat race of the friendly skies, he readily accepts. Little does he know it'll change his
life forever. Before he knows it, he's playing both sides: snapping high-speed photos and dropping guns to contra resistance fighters for Uncle Sam and running drugs on his way back home for some of Central America's most notorious drug kingpins. He finds
himself rich beyond his wildest dreams but constantly evading the law, often with the CIA's help. It becomes a game of outwitting and, often, outflying his pursuers stateside and keeping his drug handlers south of the border happy, too, but it'll take a
delicate balancing act that he cannot possibly keep up forever if he's to maintain his high energy, big money way of life.
"All this is...legal?" Tom Cruise asks his CIA contact early in the film. "If you are doing it for the good guys, yeah," he's told. Some response, huh? Talk about free reign, no consequences...no wonder Barry Seal got himself into so much trouble.
American Made takes an interesting look not at legality of action but the right and wrong of action and, more apropos to the story, the consequences of one growing too big for one's own britches. Seal becomes so rich, so powerful, so in demand,
that he cannot fly under the radar for eternity -- literally and figuratively -- even with the CIA providing him detailed maps that reveal search locations and patterns used by some of the other alphabet soup agencies out to bring him down. As he matures
from aerial photographer and amateur drug mule into gun runner and leader of a complex drug distribution system, he essentially plays both sides, doing the government's dirty laundry with his right hand and dropping loads of drugs from his plane with the
other. It's a fascinating story of man with no real scruples about what he is doing, one way or the other, so long as his bottom line grows larger and the high he gets from bettering himself becomes ever more the rush.
But, of course, growing so fat on anything is bad for one's health, and that's exactly what happens with Barry. The film plays it comically at first -- at one point as he's trying to stash money in a closet, an avalanche of cash falls in top of him -- but
the problem gets ever more serious as the film moves along, as his rising success necessarily means increasing attention from everyone not bearing the letters C-I-A on their windbreakers. Seal's world threatens to come down on him, and come down
with something much more dangerous than bundles of money. It's all about a balancing act, knowing when to "just say 'no'" as Nancy Reagan reminds everyone at one point in the movie, but here saying "no" to hubris and danger, saying "no" to rolling the
dice one more time when one is already up big. The movie slows down a little in the middle as it has a bit too much fun with Seal's excesses -- though that's certainly necessary to build the plot -- and the end is a minor letdown because it's easy to see
where it's all headed from pretty early on. But Liman and Cruise run with it and get an awful lot of mileage from it, finding a wonderful balance of smooth character building, frolicking fun, and deadly serious drama. The film is quick-paced, high-energy,
and the leads are exceptional. Cruise really can't escape the Cruise persona, but he stretches as far as he's capable and between his work and Liman's the audience quickly becomes more absorbed in Seal's story and world and less the actor's aura.
American Made is a fun movie that walks that fine line between taking itself seriously and bordering on total frivolity. It's a film based on a true story but that unapologetically takes plenty of liberties with its story. Its goal isn't to
document; its goal is to recreate and entertain its audiences, and both Liman and Cruise have crafted it into one of the year's more entertaining escapes. Universal's Blu-ray delivers decent video, exceptional DTStoryline: X
audio, and a decent little smattering of extra goodies. Recommended.
[CSW] -1.3- I couldn't have said it any better than this reviewer: Based on a true story? You couldn't have made a movie more removed from the real story. Hollywood is getting so bad it's almost impossible to find anything they haven't ruined.
Horrible script, completely disjointed. This might be one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The film is stylishly slapped together so it won't alienate the ADD crowd. The scene where the ATF, DEA, and FBI all arrest him at the same time was grade-school
silly. If you stretch a true story too far it breaks.
.
[V3.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box motion codes were available at the time of this rental although they are available now.
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