One Hour Movie Reviews Presents Review #002: American Made

One Hour Movie Reviews Presents:

Review #002 – American Made

Released: September 29^th, 2017

Viewed: September 29^th, 2017 – 7:40 PM

Writing start time: September 29^th, 2017 – 9:54 PM

Tom Cruise has another vehicle but, spoilers, he doesn't run in this one.

Tom Cruise stars in American Made, a movie in which Cruise plays American pilot Barry Seal who is asked by the CIA to begin serving the USA by using his piloting skills to spy on Those Dirty Commies in 80's Central America. Cruise gets plenty of face time in the camera as he narrates to the audience in a framing device to make sure the audience doesn't fall too far behind, especially those who can watch R-rated movies but are too young to remember the Cold War. Even though the film is “tell” heavy with the narration there is plenty to show here and what is never shown is a good guy.

Like any good spy movie all of the players are shady or just looking out for number one and Cruise gets to bounce between them all in an upwards trajectory that takes him from an ordinary airline pilot to a fabulously wealthy smuggler. Instead of the cloak and dagger spyworks and heightened martial arts found in the recent also Cold War era Atomic Blonde we get a zoomed in focus of a profiteer in a whole different kind of battlefield. The movie is a period piece with many trappings of the late 70's and early 80's brought to life but this film exists primarily so Cruise can tell a story and it's a good one to hear.

Surrounding Cruise's character is his expanding family including his wife Lucy, played by Sarah Wright, and her brother JB, played by Caleb Landry Jones. Wright does a great job standing alongside Cruise and avoiding getting caught in his shadow. JB is effective as a Southern punk that presents some real complications for Cruise's character and raises the stakes of the plot considerably. Nobody is a hero here but the relationship between Cruise's and Wright's characters manages to give the audience a touchstone and gives us characters to root for among all of the scum and villainy.

The other standout note of this feature is the cinematography. Filming aerial scenes can't be easy but what little flight choreography and drama needs to exist the movie delivers with aplomb. Several takeoff and landing sequences also manage to deliver some genuine tension. I've seen enough planes dip below frame only to zoom at the camera with all of the important characters on board safely more times than I can count but we get some originality with the framing and you can really hear and feel planes getting pushed to their limits for our viewing pleasure. Great job.

This movie isn't one for this history books even though it is a history lesson. The pacing, acting, viewing and listening are all great and, hey, in these times seeing more jabs at our government is always an additional bonus. Three stars for American Made; it's a good story told well and I'll recommend it to you.