'American Made' REVIEW: Tom Cruise's new film takes off on a fun and funny ride of crime

'American Made' is the newest film directed by Doug Liman who you may know from directing films such as The Bourne Identity (2002), Mr and Mrs Smith (2005) and my favorite film of his Edge of Tomorrow (2014). The film features actors such as Tom Cruise, Sarah Wright and Domhall Gleeson. I was really excited to see this movie just from knowing that it stars one of my favorite actors working today. Tom Cruise could almost do no wrong. I love Tom Cruise. He's awesome in movies such as Doug Liman's previous film 'Edge of Tomorrow', 'Tropic Thunder' and pretty much all of the 'Mission: Impossible' movies. Earlier this year we saw him in another movie The Mummy (2016). While I thought 'The Mummy' was overall a mediocre movie, Tom Cruise I'd say is still a very committed actor in the film. What makes this movie stand out from other Tom Cruise movies over the past years is that now he's not in a 'Tom Cruise' action movie. Believe me, I love his action movies, but now I think it's a good time for Tom Cruise to return to more dramatic and even funnier roles. After seeing the film, he pulls it off.

The film is a biographical picture of Barry Seal in the 80's who was once previously an commercial airline pilot for TWA. When he meets Domhall Gleeson's character Monty Schafer, Barry Seal ends up working for the CIA to help counter the emerging communist threat in Central America. While working for the CIA, he also ends up working for the cartel to deliver hard drugs to America and soon money gets flooded to him from all over the place. While he's doing that, he also has a wife and family to care for.

When you go into a film starring Tom Cruise, what's always the best part of those movies? Tom Cruise of course. He's great in this movie. He's massively charismatic, energetic and often times funny. Definitely a good departure from other roles in the past. He's just a lot of fun to watch and you end up attached to him through the entire film even though what he does in the film is pretty illegal. Even the performances from Domnhall Glesson and Sarah Wright I'd say are great too. This film definitely boasts an engaging and funny script. I found myself laughing quite often throughout this movie.

Issues that I have with the film is Doug Liman's choice of how he directs this film. From the way it's directed I could tell that he was going for a found footage style by using lots of crash-zooms and lots of extreme close-ups throughout. There is also a noticeable amount of cuts throughout that makes the film kind of off-putting, so it does seem pretty cheap looking at times, but it's easy to get over quickly. There's also a character that's introduced in the middle of the film (Don't worry, no spoilers on who he is) and I found his part of the story kind of unnecessary. While this particular character wasn't in the film for long, his part of the story does drag on the run time.

Overall, while this movie is by any means deep in terms of emotional investment. It's an engaging and funny crime story that coasts on the charming and energetic charisma of Tom Cruise.

'American Made' gets a B+