American made
Tom Cruise is somewhat off-putting to some people. Mainly due to his connection with the cult of Scientology and some erratic public behaviour that leads a lot of people to think hes somewhat off the deep end. However he's still a great on screen presence when used correctly and here he's pretty much in his element. He plays a bored TWA pilot Barry Seal who gets roped in by the CIA to take pictures of communist rebel bases in South America. His cocky can-do attitude soon gets him neck deep in the cocaine trade, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Pablo Escobar and running guns to the rebels in Nicaragua. The whole affair ended up nearly sinking the Reagan white house and the film does a solid job of showing how things went so badly wrong.
I have to say I enjoyed this a lot. As I said above, cruise is actually well cast in this. The film has a similar arc to films like Blow & GoodFellas. Its appealing to Hollywood and unsurprising as the whole idea of money and power corrupting is universal and was essentially true in all these stories. Director Doug Liman does a great job with the material. Its both funny and tragic, sometimes in equal measure and brings a nice visual style to proceedings. The opening Universal logo is the one used in the late 70's early 80's and Seal's narration, through archived video footage is a nice idea. Overall this is one worth checking oiut if you get the chance.
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