My Review of "American Made"

Today it's kind of hard to find a non-action movie starring Tom Cruise. He's pretty well known as an action star despite the fact that he's not as young as he used to be. It's especially different when you see him starring in a movie based on a true story. Usually these are reserved for actors that want to get awards like Oscars and Golden Globes.

Here we see Tom Cruise as Barry Seal in American Made. This is a pretty interesting story. A wild story but nevertheless it is very interesting. He used to be a TWA pilot but he got bored with the job. He used to do a few behind the scene deals while he was a pilot for TWA and was noticed by a CIA agent.

The CIA Agent played by Domhnall Gleeson hires him under some outside company to take pictures of guerrilla military in Central America. Needless to say this was the excitement that Barry was looking for in his life. He takes this job and has fun with it but soon realizes the dangers that he faces isn't necessarily reflected in his pay.

It's a good thing that Barry is an amazing pilot and does a really good job at what he does. He is soon recruited to do other jobs that aren't so legal. The movie basically picks up from there as there is a ton of wealth being distributed to everyone and everything goes haywire real quick.

I would say Tom Cruise does a peculiar job playing Barry because he has some sort of southern accent that Tom Cruise occasionally drops. It's pretty noticeable that he loses his accent every so often. I don't know what that's all about but it's pretty funny. The other characters do a passable job but there's never really sense of urgency throughout the movie except for close to the end.

To make these types of movies work you have to have more sense of urgency. I don't think I was at the edge of my seat when I watched this movie. It kind of felt like a guy bragging about a story in his life rather then telling me the story. I'm not sure if it's because Tom Cruise is basically telling this story or the fact that it's written the way it is. There's an air of smugness throughout the movie that might not rub people the right way. I don't think Tom Cruise does a bad job in this movie (except for keeping his accent).

Don't get me wrong it is a good story. I was still entertained from beginning to end but I wasn't on my seat thinking wow I can't believe that happened. Everything still made sense but I never feared for anyone's life in this movie. I think that's the only thing that keeps this movie from really pushing it to being a great movie.

They have some terrific camera shots and it was edited in a pretty slick way. Some may not like the way it was edited thinking it looks kind of cheesy but I liked it. At least they added some style to movie to make it feel like the late 70's and early 80's.

Overall, I thought this was a serviceable movie. It is entertaining from start to finish but it lacks in excitement in certain scenes. I think with a little more editing this movie could have been even better than it is. I'll have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. I was able to watch it while staying engaged and I think others can as well. I just don't think this movie will be suggested to others in the near future.