American Made is a film about the life of pilot Barry Seal, played by Tom Cruise, who becomes involved with the CIA, the Medellin Cartel, and the DEA while running guns and smuggling cocaine. The film is directed by Doug Liman, who also directed Cruise in The Wall, and is considered to be a return to form for Cruise after the failure of The Mummy. The film is fast-paced and has a jumbled narrative, but Cruise delivers a strong performance and is able to convey Seal's carefree personality. The supporting cast, including Domhnall Gleeson and Sarah Wright, also give solid performances. The film has a 1970s aesthetic, with a strong soundtrack, but it lacks character development and the use of a first-person commentary becomes jarring. Overall, American Made is a superficial but entertaining film that showcases Cruise's acting abilities.
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American Made es una película sobre la vida del piloto Barry Seal, interpretado por Tom Cruise, quien se involucra con la CIA, el Cartel de Medellín y la DEA mientras maneja armas y trafica con cocaína. La película está dirigida por Doug Liman, quien también dirigió a Cruise en The Wall, y se considera que Cruise vuelve a la forma después del fracaso de The Mummy. La película tiene un ritmo rápido y una narrativa confusa, pero Cruise ofrece una gran actuación y es capaz de transmitir la personalidad despreocupada de Seal. El elenco de apoyo, que incluye a Domhnall Gleeson y Sarah Wright, también brinda actuaciones sólidas. La película tiene una estética de la década de 1970, con una fuerte banda sonora, pero carece de desarrollo de personajes y el uso de comentarios en primera persona se vuelve discordante. En general, American Made es una película superficial pero entretenida que muestra las habilidades de actuación de Cruise.

Have you seen Narcos? Yes, now you know why the fat guy with a black beard from the CIA was always fucking Javier Peña's joint operations with the Colombian Army, the US ambassador didn’t want to expose the Colombian Government to end the immunity of the Cali Cartel (IRAN-CONTRA) and the real reason for Peña's resignation from the DEA.

The movie is probably the best one starred by Tom Cruise in at least a decade... Not a very difficult achievement, indeed.
While being entertaining, it manages to critique. the US in a subtle and sarcastic way.

The film critiques the self indulged and naif belief that most of the US continue to have about their own country and government, like that they always have the moral high ground and that the motivation for any of their interventions is to save, protect and facilitate democracy in the world... When the reality is that they create and feed their own daemons, in secrecy, for their own interest, but when they go rogue the push the western world into a holy war, like going after Sadam Hussain under the excuse of weapons of mass destruction, the hunt for the former CIA trainned, armed and finaced assets Bin Laden and its group Al-Qaeda, the War on Terror, The War on Drugs,etc...

At first, the way that the film tries to settle you into the late '70s and early '80s is a little disorienting. The VHS-like resolution seems like overkill. But as the action picks up, the film's effects and tricks make it more fun to watch. It's not a standard delivery technique for certain, and personally, it added a lot to my viewing pleasure.

Tom Cruise plays Barry Seal. Seal is portrayed as a magnetic personality with some questionable morals. He loves his family, it seems more than anything else, and that love sticks to the character during the film's entire run. You never get the feeling that his family's well-being is the primary reason he's taking the risks he is, though. On the one hand, he's concerned that he doesn't have a health plan as he takes a job with the IAC ("CIA") but he takes tremendous chances with the safety of his family anyway. Eventually, he has so much money from gun and drug running, it's actually falling out of suitcases and duffel bags stacked in closets and buried in holes in the ground. Barry is actually in it for the adventure, although that is never told to us in anyway by Director Doug Liman and crew. Seal is constantly trying to shelter and hide his family from the dangers that he himself is kicking up. He shows frustration at times, but never backs away from new "business", no matter how shady.

Enough can't be said about Cruise's performance. He's so good here. I have relayed my thoughts before about how much better he makes every movie that he's in. He's an endlessly entertaining actor and it's fun to see him portray a man who's not an infallible hero or indestructible force. For the last time, I don't really know what kind of freak he is in real life but he is one of the very few actors that I'll watch in anything. The movies that he's made over the last decade and a half have been terrific more often than not.

It's always kind of fun seeing Tom Cruise in a role where he has to actually act and not just do the action phone-in-emotion thing...because he is capable of being a decent actor and not just a pretty-boy action star.

And, in this he was a decent actor.

And the result is a very enjoyable and fun period piece that has just as much drama as it does action and comedy, which allows the time dedication to slip buy unnoticed.

It's actually pretty rare that you can watch a film this long and not really feel like you're watching a long film.

The only real downside is that the end hits you a bit abruptly, a bit too abruptly for the build up...but who cares when the build-up is this enjoyable.

_American Made_ is a peculiar film, but a very enjoyable one. It takes a playful, satirical look at the origins of the notorious 'Iran-Contra' affair, through the eyes of pilot Barry Seal. Along the ways we get thrills, laughs, astonishing (true-life) twists and turns and some vivid characters.

Even if you followed the public Iran-Contra scandal, you may be unfamiliar with the story of Seal, who started running guns for the CIA years before the familiar public scandal erupted. American Made is a fast, breezy, amoral look at the ins and outs of a covert operation made to go wrong. There's no judgment here; in fact, we come to like Seal's crazy make-it-up-as-you-go-along approach to flying, to crime and to life in general.

Tom Cruise is perfectly cast as the cocky, reckless pilot. I've done a fair bit of flying, and I've met one or two hot-shots like (in a lesser degree) the one Cruise portrays. Cruise has lately been playing parts that are much too young for him (e.g. _Jack Reacher: Never Go Back_), but his age works well in this case. In a way, Seal is a guy fighting to stay young.

If there's one there's one thing to regret about _American Made_ it's that it carefully avoids most of the political backdrop. We're told that the Sandinistas were evil Russian-backed Communists, which is undoubtedly what the CIA would have said at the time. (Hindsight is more ambiguous.) We're shown, just barely, how the Reagan administration evolved a cockeyed criminal scheme for its own ends, but the film ends where the public Iran-Contra scandal began. Ollie North is a presence in only one or two shots.

Nonetheless, Barry Seal's personal story arc is wrapped up perfectly. The ending doesn't let anyone off the hook, but it does leave us questioning our own moral position, as we're inevitably drawn to like and admire Barry Seal, in spite of his total lack of scruples or judgment.

Doug Liman directs with his usual flair. He's had a remarkably varied career, ranging from spy-action (_Bourne Identity_) to superheroes (_Jumper_) to political drama (_Fair Game_) to straight-up sci-fi (_Edge of Tomorrow_). _American Made_ stands up very well in that catalog. It's a fun film, a thoughtful film, an unusual film... though its darker side may not appeal to every taste.