American Made

Tom Cruise hasn’t completely lost his box office appeal.  American Made, set in the early 1980s, tells the unbelievable story of how one cocky airline pilot gets recruited by the CIA and the Colombian druglords to smuggle guns and cocaine.

 

American Made (Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson) – Tom Cruise plays a morally challenged pilot who is recruited into the CIA to run guns to the Contras.  He plays Barry Seal, a TWA pilot with a mischievous streak, who smuggles Cuban cigars into the country, drawing the attention of the CIA circa 1980.  He is recruited, relocated to rural Arkansas, handed a sleek, speedy plane, his own airstrip, and all the resources he needs to avoid the DEA.

 

He then falls in with the Medellin cartel in Columbia to smuggle cocaine into the U.S., then run guns to the Contras in Nicaragua, combining his two activities to become unconscionably and conspicuously rich.  But this can’t go on forever.  So when his scheme is uncovered and his CIA support dries up, everything goes south.  If this story weren’t based in truth, you would think it ridiculous and unbelievable.  

 

As a film, it is filled with action, decadence, and excess.  Cruise plays his self-styled Maverick/Jerry McGuire cocky character.  The trademark gleam in his eye is ever-present.  Yes, he is now too old for these kinds of parts but he does his best to carry the film despite a predictable ending to an implausible plot.  

 

Director Doug Limon (The Bourne Identity and the Cruise vehicle Edge of Tomorrow) weaves in the historical context through clips of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and Ollie North, making everything almost credible.  Almost.

 

This is by no means a must-see.  There is plenty of reason for Cruise haters to skip it without missing much and Cruise lovers to head to the Cineplex.  It is fine matinee fare and a good excuse to munch popcorn.

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