For years Tom Cruise has been known more for his action roles than anything else, but still offers up a great performance alongside the insane stunts he is willing to do himself. His latest flick, American Made co-starring Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, E. Roger Mitchell, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke, Alejandro Edda, Benito Martinez, Caleb Landry Jones and Jayma Mays with Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman at the helm looks to be a bit more than just another straight action film. Could this flick deliver the goods or will it fail to make the pick up?

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American Made follows the outrageous and real exploits of Barry Seal, a hustler and pilot unexpectedly recruited by the CIA to run one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. history. I was excited to see Cruise doing a different kind of movie when I saw the trailer for this film and thankfully really enjoyed it. Sure there are some action moments, but this is far from an action movie unlike most of what he does these days. Instead this one took a unique approach to tell this real life insane story that is more dialogue heavy with twists and turns that are so hard to believe its insane that it really occurred. Like most of these kinds of films the story is altered a bit from the facts, but not so much that it affects the real story.

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Cruise is great in this role playing up the spaztic get rich scheme guy wrapped in a pilot’s uniform who is tired of his daily grind and looking for something more. What he finds is danger and wealth that comes with a price. He looks to be having a great time in the role and the supporting cast all bring their A game as well making it all come together well. The film is structured well with a mix of videotaped confession type moments to tell the story along with the standard filmmaking and some great choices to make a stand out film that really delivers a great story that will keep you engaged up until the very end.

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This is one of those stories and moves that will no doubt surprise you if you didn’t know all of this information. The ending to where it all goes leads into some of the biggest moments in modern history in the drug world that I had no idea was connected until seeing the film. Whether you like Tom Cruise or not this is a great film that offers up a peek inside the insane government connection to the drug trade and more spotlight on the corruption out there and the lengths they went through to make changes they felt necessary for the free world.