American Made (2017) Review

Director: Doug Liman 

Screenwriters: Gary Spinelli

Producers: Brian Grazer, Brian Oliver, Tyler Thompson, Doug Davison, and Kim Roth

Starring: Tom Cruise

Composer: Chrisophe Beck

Cinematographer: Cesar Charlone

Editors: Saar Klein, Andrew Mondshein, and Dylan Tichenor

Production Companies: Imagine Entertainment and Cross Breek Pictures

Part I: Introduction

I was pretty interested to learn the story of Barry Seals because the story sounds ridiculous. Also, I heard about the very tragic deaths of 2 stuntmen. I hope that some of the box office revenue is allocated towards those families in support of their lost ones. So, how is American Made? Is it good? 

Part II: Plot Synopsis

American Made follows the story of Barry Seal (played by Tom Cruise), a former TWA pilot who turned to smuggling drugs for the Medellin Cartel. 

Part III: Direction & Style

Direction
I liked the direction of this movie. Doug Liman has proven himself to be a solid director over the years. Solid direction all around and I'll go a bit more detail on his direction style here next.

Style
One of the biggest positives of the movie is its style which is a bit strange for this type of movie. Liman goes for a more documentary-ish style and make it look low-budget but still maintain those high production values. The reason why I like this style so much is that the documentary-ish style reflects the fact that it is based on a true story but the story is so ridiculous that they still chose to film it somewhat the same way you see in standard action films. And I love it.

Part IV: Visual Presentation

Cinematography & Framing
Cinematography is solid. It's nothing special really to talk about. It's not like it's on par with Blade Runner 2049's cinematography, but it gets the job done.

Camerawork
Camerawork is really good here and the camerawork is used to further express its documentary style.

Acting
Acting from Tom Cruise and other supporting roles were good.

Editing
The film had a more proactive edit, which made the film more fast-paced.

Part V: Sound Design and Musical Composition

Sound Design 

Sound design isn't really anything to note there either. This film has a documentary-style, so the sound design was more on the fence on aiming for realism. In that perspective, it does succeed. 

Score

Use of songs and tracks from the 80's was decent. Nothing special there.

Part VI: Screenwriting & Character Composition

Script & Screenwriting

The script here is really solid, except with a few kinks. I don't know the true story when it comes to Barry Seal and what really happened. But, this story is so ridiculous, you almost constantly get the sense that "no way did this happen". It's like they made up certain scenes in the movie. It kinda falls victim to the biography trap.

Character Composition

Barry Seal, as a character in the film, isn't all that interesting. To be fair, I knew the character composition was going to be basically non-existent because there's nothing to relate to this character. We already know that he was basically a drug smuggler doing some operations for the corrupt parts of the government. So, I don't think they could have done much in that area. 

Pacing

Pacing is smooth and fast paced. I did feel that it did lose a bit of its edge in the middle and end of the film. I'm not going to spoil it but it's not that surprising the pacing of the film didn't maintain all of its energy throughout the whole film. I mean, the movie does consist of Tom Cruise basically doing the same thing over and over the whole film. 

Part VII: Verdict & Conclusion

All in all, this movie is an entertaining biography. To be honest, there's not much to it than that other than its incredible direction and style. If you came here to see Tom Cruise do some crazy stuff, you'll definitely get it here. All around, it's a solid film. The only flaw I had with it is that it feels that they're making the story so ridiculous and parts of it is made-up just to cater to the action crowd. 

Score: B+