American Made

Starring: Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, Jesse Plemons, Caleb Landry Jones
Directed by: Doug Liman
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Comedy
2017

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A pilot (Tom Cruise) begins working secretly for the CIA, but he also gets into drug smuggling.

Review:

Tim: American Made isn't a bad movie, it just felt like the timing was wrong. A few years ago, this movie would have felt more fresh and unique. As is, it feels like it missed the bus- it's a movie that comes too late, one that feels played out, rather than original. The problem is the whole "criminal that you love while the movie borderline celebrates their illegal behavior" thing. Sure, these movies go way back. I'm not going to get into the gangster movies of the 40s, but Wall Street certainly comes to mind. In recent years, we've seen a ton of these movies. The Wolf of Wall Street was the most famous, but movies like War Dogs have already told this story. So, I'm not suggesting American Made is a bad movie, it just felt as fresh as ten-day-old bread. The whole time, I just kept wondering if we really needed this movie, if it told us something about the human experience that we haven't seen multiple times already (and in recent years). The answer is "not really."

Doug Liman directs a decent movie, but it just felt too color-by-numbers. An ordinary guy stumbles across an extraordinary opportunity, but it forces him to cross the line into illegal territory. His illegal behavior results in a windfall of cash and he becomes wealthier than his wildest dreams, so rich he doesn't know what to do with all the money. At the height of his wealth (SPOILER ALERT), the law finally catches up with him and he comes crashing down. I could have wrote this after watching the movie for five minutes. It was overtly obvious how everything would play out. The only question was the finer details. That gave the movie a pretty bad quality- it felt redundant and then told a story exactly like ones we've seen quite a few times before. That made this 1 hour, 55 minute movie feel even longer. I will admit I was mildly interested in how it would all turn out, since it was based on a true story. It's one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" stories, so there's some legitimate interest in seeing what will happen.

Tom Cruise is fairly good in the lead role. He's obviously having fun with the part, as it's a bit of a departure from his typical roles (although it's a stretch, it's a minor one). I enjoyed him in the role. I wouldn't say this is one of his better performances, but he hits the right notes. It was great seeing Domhnall Gleeson here- the guy appears to be everywhere these days. He certainly brings his unique persona to every role he plays. I thought he was entertaining here and works well with Cruise. Caleb Landry Jones adds a decent supporting turn. Other that that, though, the cast felt fairly unremarkable. Maybe this was done purposely because they were depicting real people and Liman wanted to limit the star power, but it felt like the movie could have used a stronger supporting cast.

Now, regardless of the fact that the movie's story was obvious from the get go, everyone involved seemed to have fun telling this story. They certainly put effort into the film, which makes you feel bad that the end result wasn't more entertaining. When you tell a story so similar to many others that have been told recently, you have to be better than average. This movie doesn't quite get there. Did we really care what happened to Cruise's character? I mean, he's obviously not a very good person. Why should we care, why should we invest in him? Simply because he's the main character and Tom Cruise plays him, appears to be the answer. That's not good enough for me. I didn't care very much about what happened to him- whether he lived or died, went to jail or remained free. I wanted to see how the story would end, but I had no emotional investment in the characters.

American Made might not be a bad movie, but it's not a particularly good one, either. I was surprised so many critics liked it. It was fine, but it's a movie that feels like we've seen it before.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
The Wolf of Wall Street, War Dogs