Be Reel - American Made

Recently, my parents and I had the great opertunity to watch the movie American Made, a true story about Barry Seal (played by Tom Cruise) who was a TWA (Trans World Airlines) pilot and was recruited by the CIA to provide top secret information on the communist threat in Central America. He ended up in charge of one of the biggest covert CIA operations in the history of the United States. The operation was so absurd that it spawned the birth of the Medellin cartel and almost brought down the Reagan White House.

Barry started off as a regular pilot, but decided that he didn't want to fly for a commercial airline anymore, so he got a job with what he thought was the American government, but instead was much worse. He worked for TWA before he was recruited by the CIA in 1978. The work that he was doing in South America eventually caught the eye of the Medellín Cartel, which was associated with the drug lord Pablo Escobar. The cartel needed a man with Barry's skill set in order to make delivers and various other trips for them. Barry eventually became a drug trafficker, gun smuggler and money launderer, eventually gaining the title, 'The gringo that always delivers'.

This movie had great cinematic choices, from its immaculate performance from the actors, to their appearance as well. The actors in this movie looked unbelievably similar to the characters they were portraying in real life (such as Pablo Escobar for example, played by actor Mauricio Mejía). The choices in angles in this movie was executed very well, especially for the scenes in which Barry is under cover. In this scene the cameras that we hidden were used as shots in the movie in order to show what the cameras were recording. Also, the movie had a lot of scenes from the point of views of various different people, such as the main character, his wife, the CIA, and the cartel themselves. Most of the film was shot in the outdoors, and in the sky. The cinematography and CGI in this film was outstanding. The flying scenes were extremely realistic looking and it was almost forgettable that it was a movie it looked so real! This film did an overall outstanding job in executing a true story as much as possible.

In my opinion, this movie was very overall, just entertaining. Throughout the movie I found myself leaning forward in my seat wondering if this guy was going to get caught or not. It is often hard to make a true story entertaining, let alone not a documentary. This film was so well executed I would watch it again, and again, and again. I found it so amazing and foreboding how his insane this mans life was, and how it was really a true story. I can not imagine having such a crazy life like his! All in all, I rate this film a GOOD GOOD and I recommend it to anyone who has enough time to sit down and get engaged in a thrilling experience.