AsianTrumpSupporter
Platinum Member
As an 80s kid, I grew up watching a lot of Tom Cruise movies. However, the truth is that I lost interest in most Tom Cruise movies as I got older. He seemed to get into this rut of playing the same characters over and over again, and these characters usually aren't very fleshed out. He would occasionally remind me that he can actually act in movies like Collateral, Tropic Thunder, Born on the 4th of July, etc.
But every time he made a movie like a Mission Impossible movie, The Mummy, or Edge of Tomorrow, it just seemed like he was phoning it in.
American Made should put Cruise back on the map as a serious actor. He was awesome in this movie. Although he looked and talked like Tom Cruise, he seemed to disappear into this real life character of Barry Seal. For the first time in a long time, Cruise plays a very morally gray character.
Although I'm somewhat familiar with Pablo Escobar (thanks to the Narcos show), the Sandinistas, etc., I really didn't know much about this character, Barry Seal. If you don't know his life story, don't research it before watching this movie. This is the best acting I've seen Tom Cruise perform in a very long time. The first 30 minutes seemed like they were playing it safe, but the movie quickly escalates and gets really intense after about the 1 hour mark. The last 30-40 minutes were great.
9.3/10
So far, Cruise has been lucky enough to keep his youthful good looks. As he gets even older, I really hope he transitions away from playing action heroes and becomes a character actor who plays these types of roles. When he does, he is great.
This is not a documentary-style realistic portrayal the way Narcos is. The tone of the movie is very similar to what the trailer shows. There are a few times that get really tense, but, for the most part, it didn't feel like there were real stakes. But there were some really funny moments and also some pretty decent serious/drama moments. It's a bit of a dark comedy that doesn't ever get too dark.
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