American Made: Tom Cruise Nails It!

Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes may not love Tom Cruise anymore, but I still do.  Tom, the world's most famous Scientologist, doesn't believe in psychiatry, but I don't hold that against him.  I think he's arguably America's most under-rated actor, just nosing out Kevin Costner.  Tom has carried many terrific films, including "Risky Business," "Top Gun," "Jerry Maguire," and "Rain Man," among others.  I say stop "sinking" Tom Cruise! This film is based on a true story about Barry Seal.  It's the 1970s and Barry (Tom Cruise) is a pilot struggling to make ends meet.  As luck would have it, Barry gets an offer from Shafer (Domhnall Gleeson) of the CIA to fly over South American countries, taking photographs of suspected communist groups.  While doing this, he winds up working with Pablo Escobar's drug cartel, carrying tons of cocaine back with him to the U.S. on each trip.  Barry is "successful" and winds up with many millions in cash (which he can't launder fast enough), but he can't seem to quit, even though he has more money than he will ever spend. It's an entertaining film with a considerable amount of black humor, although we don't get any insight as to what makes Barry tick.  If there were more good films out now, I'd give it a 7.0, but the pickings are slim, so I'm giving it a 7.5.  It will work fine as a rental, but it's worth seeing now on BS if there's nothing out there that you want to see.