American Made Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

Tom Cruise's new movie American Made is enjoying an early international rollout ahead of its US release on September 29th, and critics have mostly hailed the film as an energetic, entertaining biopic with Tom Cruise back doing what he does best.

Is Cruise's new collaboration with director Doug Liman likely to win any awards? No, but it is a well above-average crime thriller that tells a deliciously bizarre tale in a radical and visually compelling way.

Perhaps with some fine-tuning it could've ended up an awards player over the next few months, but honestly, the end result is so much loony fun that this approach may well have been for the best.

The film certainly has its issues, but if you want to see Tom Cruise lending his immense charms to a scarcely believable, unerringly interesting real-life figure, then American Made is absolutely well worth your time...

Downs...

3. Tom Cruise Looks Nothing Like Barry Seal

While it's acceptable that not every actor playing a real-life character is going to resemble them with total exactitude, it's somewhat immersion-breaking just how little Tom Cruise resembles the real Barry Seal.

The real-life Seal was overweight and decidedly less handsome than Cruise, yet little-to-no attempt has been made to "ugly-up" the legendary movie star, which some might see as an act of vanity on Cruise's part.

It isn't the be-all-and-end-all of the film, especially as Seal isn't a particularly well-known figure, but still, it's pretty hilarious how Cruise is basically the physical polar opposite of the man he's playing.