Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinematic Shocks  American Made (2017) |
I saw this at the cinema last week knowing nothing about the real guy who inspired the film, but quite a bit about the politics in North and South America at the time, and the expanding drug trade at the time. I thought it slotted in very well with films like Traffic, Blow and Salvador, giving another viewpoint on the extremely complicated world in which the CIA's involvement in Colombian drug dealers and rebel armies from across the political spectrum overlapped at the centre of a bizarre Venn diagram. There is an element which also links to Sicario, with the word "Medellin" being explored in a lot of detail here giving a greater understanding to what is currently happening with violence by drug cartels in Mexico and elsewhere.
It's strange that what many would consider the film's biggest selling point is also a major negative, with Tom Cruise basically playing Tom Cruise, donning aviator sunglasses and looking like an older version of Maverick! However, the frenetic direction, fluctuating undercurrents of threat and absurdist comedy and neat storytelling makes this something more than a Tom Cruise vehicle and something which sits alongside Edge of Tomorrow (the previous collaboration between Cruise and Doug Liman) in entertainment value.