This week we headed off to see American Made which re-teamed Director Doug Liman with Tom Cruise, a combination that worked so well with Edge of Tomorrow
Now we are strong Cruise defenders, but we were left more than disappointed by his earlier film this year The Mummy but American Made we are pleased to see is a fine return to form.
The film is made even more incredible by the fact that is was based on real life events.
We follow Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) as an excellent TWA airline pilot who has got bored of commercial flights so is thrilled when approached by CIA man, Shafer (Domnhall Gleeson)
Shafer offers him a simple mission to fly a spy plane over Central American to photograph persons of interest.
Seal does this so well that it catches the attention of Pablo Escobar, who forces him to ship his drugs back to the USA.
Needless to say, Seal beings to make fortunes of cash, so much so that he struggles to bank so much of it, leaving him to set up many side businesses to attempt to launder the money, as well as just hiding some in suitcases and holdalls, stacked away in cupboards or buried in the garden.
The film shows that Seal does all this whilst trying to also do what is best to protect his family, led by his wife Lucy (Sarah Wright) so much so, that in agreeing to help her wayward brother, Bubba (Caleb Landry Jones) their whole operation is nearly discovered by local law officer Downing (Jesse Plemons)
Things begin to go crazy for Seal as his operation just begins to get bigger and bigger with the export of more drugs and now guns taking place, and we get some fun sequences as he and his fellow pilots use varying tactics to avoid the drug enforcement agency following them, one of which involves the sequence from the trailer which sees a plane having to land on a public highway.
As the authorities eventually do finally begin to close in on Seal and his involvement with Escobar and his cartel, the risks for him and his family become even more apparent, especially as the CIA who knew some of what he was doing wash his hands of him, for fear of embarrassing the then Reagan White House Administration.
This really was a great film, it never does get too dark, although that is not to say it is without dark moments. Tom does exceptionally well in the title role, that once again you have to wonder why he gets so much ridicule online.
If you like a political film, or the adventures of drug handling, which is so popular on TV with such hits as Narcos; Ozark and Breaking Bad we highly recommend American Made
You can watch the trailer here:
