But by the time the movie roared to its shockingly grim, remarkably embittered ending, American Made had won me over.

| Oct 13, 2017

It skitters and jumps, shivers and boot-scoots, never, ever sitting still. You could say it's like "Blow," on well, blow. But there's a breezy sunniness to this film, which looks like a faded snapshot reclaimed from an '80s photo album.

| Oct 7, 2017

One assumes that Cruise got this film made, yet he's a terrible fit for the role: he's always done his best work portraying smart, insightful characters in dramatic stories, but Seal was a yahoo whose sorry escapades are played here for cynical laughs.

| Oct 5, 2017

Without realizing it, American Made is a wincing metaphor for Tom Cruise's movie career-which, come to think of it, is exclusively and embarrassingly American made, too.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 2, 2017

American Made gives director Doug Liman and charismatic star Tom Cruise a superior vehicle and plays to their strengths. It's a solid piece of entertainment that takes a stranger-than-fiction story and brings it to life in convincing fashion.

| Oct 2, 2017

The impetuous pace of the film is at one with its moral shamelessness, and, without thinking, we sign up for both.

| Sep 29, 2017

If it isn't always as focused or as deep as I wanted it to be, that does not make the finished feature any less invigorating, this romp into arrogant American excess a tragic flight of fancy well worth taking.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 29, 2017

[Tom] Cruise gives his energetic all to the role, but he, too, doesn't seem to be quite aware that Seal was morally compromised far beyond the shallow confines of this film.

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 29, 2017

There's an aspirational pleasure in seeing Cruise, now in his mid-50s, jump through these hoops. He knows we prefer him when he shades his easy charm with self-doubt, and Barry has a pleasingly sweaty desperation. But not enough ...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 29, 2017

The story at times feels too wild, too crazy to be true, but that's what makes it worth telling. "American Made" is a real whopper.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 29, 2017

Stylish, politically savvy, exceptionally well-constructed.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 29, 2017

If American Made were limited to what Seal knew personally, some of the dangling threads in Gary Spinelli's script could be written off. As it is, they hint at stories we'd like to know better

Full Review | Sep 29, 2017

The point here is not to depict Reagan-era corruption or cartel ruthlessness. The point is a wild ride akin to [the real-life] Barry's own - you may as well enjoy it.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 28, 2017

American Made delivers so much as rambunctious entertainment that it's easy to miss the film's withering assessment of American foreign policy during the Reagan years.

| Sep 28, 2017

The film may be fact-based but that doesn't stop it from feeling generic, like you've seen it all before. The big difference is that Cruise is spreading his starshine over this one and that (still) counts for something.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 28, 2017

Cruise doesn't seem fully suited to the role of lovable reprobate, but he knows how to capture an adrenaline rush and his charisma is, as ever, undimmed.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 28, 2017

It's everything you could want from a flashy true-crime biopic skewering the hypocrisy and malice of the Reagan Administration's covert war in Central and South America.

| Sep 28, 2017

"American Made" is a smart, nervy film, a very modern entertainment made with energy, style and a fine sense of humor that keeps us amused until gradually, almost imperceptibly, the laughter starts to stick in our throats.

| Sep 28, 2017

It's nice to be reminded that Tom Cruise has the chops to play somebody other than Tom Cruise, Action Hero.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 28, 2017

Just when it seems it may be time to close the book on Tom Cruise's acting career, something comes along to suggest new chapters are possible.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 28, 2017