When You're American Made

Good day my friends! You know what time it is? I was going to say it’s 4:37pm,hahaha! But if you said it was movie review time you would be correct as well. man the weeks just seem to be flying by. It seems they keep going by quicker and quicker. And to top it all off it is not the month of October.Somedays I really wish time would just slow down a bit  because it seems that the older we get the faster the time goes by. Seems just like yesterday that I was a five years old and it was 1982. Than one day I closed my eyes and 35 years flew by in an instant. Doesn’t mean I don’t remember all the memories I had along the way and I had my fair share of good ones and bad ones. I’ve seen friends and family come and go out of my life but man growing up in the 1980’s and 90’s those were the days! The 1980’s in particular where the majority of my childhood took place. Those were the days when cable television consisted of 14 to 17 channels, people didn’t have cell phones well you did if you rich enough and they were extremely large looking like a great big walkie talkie,lol! There were some classic television shows like Dallas, Dynasty, Cheers, Knight Rider, The A-Team, The Fall Guy, just to  name a few. There was no Playstation or X-Box and Nintendo didn’t come out until the mid to late 80’s I really can’t remember? The internet wasn’t around yet and wouldn’t show up until the 1990’s and not everyone had a computer. To entertain themselves kids did the craziest thing imaginable and that was they went out side to play, whether it was to the playground in the park or for a bike ride with their friends. The 80’s were also home of the rise of the moral majority in the form of Ronald Regan and his Republican party. The actor turned president was and still popular among Republican supporters served two terms as President Of The United States. The thing I remember most is the impersonations of him by several comedians in the 1980’s. I also remember when he asked Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin wall. But his time as President is mostly remembered by the Iran-Contras senate hearings. Now we could sit and talk politics all day here and I know some of you have your opinions about all that political stuff in the 80’s but this is a movie review blog and I don’t want to get into a big political discussion so I ask you to please keep those to yourself and just enjoy the bit of nostalgia I am writing here to lead into my review. The 80’s also gave us some memorable movies too such as The Breakfast Club, Back To The Future and Risky Buisness a role which while it wasn’t his first role in a movie it certainly was one that grabbed the attention of many. The actor I am talking about is none other than Tom Cruise of course! And this week we are looking at the movie American Made which stars the charismatic 55 year old Cruise(Top Gun, Jerry Maguire) as Barry Seal in the movie based on true events. So let us sit back and take a long look at the story here and later on I will tell you what i thought about the movie.

In 1978 Barry Seal(Cruise) was the youngest pilot to ever fly for TWA and he was an excellent pilot. But like most people in their jobs it all starts to become stagnant and he has become bored with his job feeling like he is running through the motions. He comes home from his flights and is extremely exhausted preferring to pass out and sleep rather than make love to his wife Lucy(Sarah Wright). Than one day while on one of his fights he is approached by Monty Schafer an agent for the CIA who offers him the chance to do something different. They will give Barry a new plane and a front company to call his own and work out of if he flies over places in South America that the Soviet Union has communist insurgents training and take photos of them for the government. With his wives disapproval he takes the job anyway while she still thinks he is flying for TWA and does these jobs. But with every mission he narrowly escapes death but still always delivers the best pictures for intel. But he wants more, he wants some danger pay from the government. They tell him that they can’t but that he is a smart boy and will figure something out. So while in Columbia refuelling his plane at the airport he is taken by some armed men to a meeting with Medellin Cartel who wanted him to transport their cocaine for them in his airplane on a regular basis. Seeing the money he could make in doing this he agrees but only if they do it his way by dropping the packages strapped to lifejackets in the Louisiana swamps and picked up by the cartels men there. The cartel agrees and his plan is a success but while in Columbia he is arrested for drug trafficking along with the rest of the cartel. Schafer gets him out of prison but has him move to Arkansas as his home in Baton Rouge is about be searched in the morning. So he goes home and moves his family in the middle of the night to a small town in Arkansas in a home given to him by the CIA along with over 2000acres of land and an airfield. This when his wife is clued in that he doesn’t work for TWA anymore and he tells her what he is doing for both the government and the cartel. The CIA now wants him to transport weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua and with the help of the flight maps given to him by the agency to avoid detection from government authorities he does so but at first it proves difficult and than later he is given a better offer by the cartel and someone from the agency in Nicaragua to instead fly the guns to Colombia and give them to the Cartel who in turn would transport their drugs on their boats. Barry agrees and does this as well as still smuggle drugs into the States. he becomes extremely busy and successful at this having to hire other pilots and stash all the money he is making in suitcases and bags allover his property. But the CIA also wants him to transport the Contras secretly to Arkansas and train to fight to overthrow the current Nicaraguan government to which he does. But with all the luck and success that he has eventually everyones luck runs out and so does his as the CIA cancels the training of the contras and after almost being caught by the DEA Barry’s association with them. This leads to him being arrested by four different government agencies and facing severe jail time he is given a break by the Presidents office and sent to take pictures of the Medellin cartel to which he delivers yet again. But is exposed on the news by the government on television . So with all his money taken, his business gone and his life and his families life in danger from the repercussions of betraying the cartel he  moves his family back to Baton Rouge where he serves out the 1000 hours of community service he was given for his crimes and keeps himself moving from motel to motel avoiding possible assassination all the while making tapes about what his past wight the CIA and cartel.

Yes I know I just mostly gave you the entire story of the movie but you notice I used the word mostly and that is true because I didn’t give you the entire movie especially the ending I wouldn’t do that! Now I was really intrigued to see this movie when I saw the trailer and read what it was about. After all I do like movies based on real life events because those are the most interesting! This movie did not disappoint at all and proved to live up to expectations I had for it. But it also surprised me too as while I was expecting a real overly serious dramatic biographical film. What i got was some drama mixed with a lot of light hearted humour to tell the story. And while that usually doesn’t work for most pictures like this, it did here! Cruise was great and I have to say pretty funny too as well. The movie was well put together with a nice supporting cast and an interesting way of telling the story through some of Barry’s video recordings. I found the story intriguing and yet fun at he same time. It also made me feel a bit of nostalgia  for the 80’s from some of the historic  moments I remember from my childhood displayed in the movie. Having said this there wasn’t much bad I could say about this movie . I mean it can be hit or miss with a Tom Cruise movie but this one was good and am giving it a 7.4 on The Justin Scale Of Movies putting it on my Pick-It List of movies to see in the theatre. So wow! It seems that September had better movies than August did and it looks like October will continue with that trend. And that’s a wrap here on my latest movie review here friends! Until next time keep that popcorn freshly popped,save me a good seat and I will see you next time at the movies.