Review of American Made (2017) by Mark K — 28 Oct 2017

I love Tom Cruise and I absolutely loved Doug Liman's previous movies, The Edge of Tomorrow being one of my all time favorites. Naturally, having heard of great reviews I was looking forward to seeing this one.

But, unfortunately, the movie disappoints. Tom Cruise, as many have mentioned, isn't a good fit for the role, for Barry Seal, as I've been able to realize from reading (and even from just watching the movie one can get a good idea of the kind of man he was), was way too much morally compromised to be portrayed as an action super hero--a kind of role Tom Cruise has been really good at so far (for this same reason I didn't quite like his movie Collateral).

In addition, I've heard the movie is not a veridical account of Barry Seal's true story, but is, instead, a gross exaggeration and distortion of what really took place all those years ago. Sadly, though, the movie opens with the "Based on a true story" caption, and that's, as I said, sad.

But mostly, the movie is simply too boring and was only able to have me riveted as it was approaching its grim ending.