American Made (2017)

Director: Doug Liman
Writer: Gary Spinelli
DOP: Cesar Charlone
Cast: Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright

A pilot ends up working for the CIA initially as an aerial recon photographer and later as a delivery boy of weapons. He also gets mixed up in the drug business also as a deliverer using his planes for the Medellin cartel. It is a biographical adaptation of the adventures of Barry Seal, a former TWA pilot.

Film can be seen as a companion piece to Jeremy Renner starrer 'Kill the Messenger', where he played the role of a journalist who discovers that CIA is involved in a drug racket to fund the contra rebels in Nicaragua. It was a more serious film while Doug Liman goes for comedy in this one and it works very well. His last outing with Tom Cruise was 'Edge of Tomorrow' which mixed action with humour and had its lead in a  self-deprecating role. A sequel is expected to be announced with the same team.

Barry Seal was around 40 when the events shown in the film starts and they could have had Tom Cruise in an aged appearance. He looks really weird with all the plastics, just like Mammooty is these days. Domhnall Gleeson, who was great in Ex-Machina, gets a meaty role. Apart from him and Barry's wife, the only other interesting characters we meet are the brief appearances by the cartel members including Pablo Escobar. Tom Cruise is still able to carry the film through in a slightly 'Wolf of Wall Street' manner, but without breaking the fourth wall blatantly. It is a good watch overall.

Doug Liman had a brilliant start to his career with films like Swingers, Go and culminating with Bourne Identity. Then he went a bit shit with the likes of Mr & Mrs Smith. He is now back in form and his next one, Chaos Walking, looks very interesting with the likes of Charlie Kaufman involved.

Rating: 3.5/5