TOM TERRIFIC
Less frantic Cruise has it ‘Made’ in CIA caper
CRUISE, controlled.
That’s the game plan for “American Made,” a new Tom Cruise movie that plays up its star’s charisma while dialing back his urge to treat every film like a cardio workout.
Really, for the last 10 years the man hasn’t stood still.
If he’s in an airplane, he’s jumping out of it. If he’s on a motorcycle, he’s racing it. If he’s running, he’s such a blur you’d think Leah Remini was behind him — and gaining.
Thankfully, “American Made” slows him down just enough to let him act, while still providing the cheerful Cruise trademarks — boyish grin, happy hustling, cocky recklessness. Plus just a little more. The movie is based on the story of Barry Seal, a TWA pilot and smalltime ’70s smuggler who started out dealing in contraband Cuban cigars — and ended up, thanks to some CIA “friends,” in the middle of the IranContra mess.
The facts were actually more complicated than that. But then this is not only a new, slightly dialed-down Tom Cruise movie, but a clever mashup of some of our favorite old ones.
So it starts out with a little “Top Gun” bravado. Folds in a bit of “Jerry Maguire” iconoclasm. And then adds a touch of “Mission: Impossible” double-dealing, just to amp things up. And it’s best when it sticks to that simple, cynical sense of adventure, as Seal meats his CIA handler (a glum Domhnall Gleeson) and starts making regular runs to Latin America. Guns in, drugs out, and pounds of cash for everyone. The amount of money is almost comical — at one point, Seal is literally buried in $100 bills. And the manic, back-slapping Seal soon gets the look of that guy at the craps table who knows his streak can’t possibly last, who really, really knows he should just step away and cash out. But not yet. Director Doug Liman sometimes substitutes snark for cynicism, and overdoes the politics of it (and not surprisingly — his attorney father helped in the Senate’s Iran-Contra investigations).
But he also has a few good action scenes, including Seal’s first whiteknuckled takeoff from a jungle runway. And the film is cut nicely to ’70s and ’80s hits (extra points for not using Glenn Frey’s “Smuggler’s Blues”).
Still, although the movie benefits from taming Tom (photo) a bit, it would have been better if the story itself went a little wilder.
Even if you buy Seal’s the CIAmade-me-do-it excuse (and you shouldn’t), he was still a criminal who put a lot of people in danger — starting with his own family. Cruise may demand our attention, but this guy doesn’t deserve our cheers.
In a better movie, he’d be a little edgier, a little nastier, a little less of a hero.
But “American Made” doesn’t want to be a great movie. It just wants to be a good Tom Cruise movie — or, at least, a better one than we’ve had lately. And it gets that absolutely right, even if — like Seal — it’s not quite as clever as it thinks.