89% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: It's alright
Watch it if you: Are a fan of Tom Cruise;
Are interested in movies based on true stories;
Are interested in movies that involve drug muling
This is the story of how Barry Seal goes from TWA pilot, to CIA informant, to Medellin cartel semi-founder(ish), to... well, a whole lot more. It's a fast-paced film on how in the span of just 8 years, Barry Seal went from your average Joe to a key participatant in one of the biggest CIA operations ever.
I wasn't too keen on this film, but frankly there was nothing else really showing so I decided to check it out. I saw the trailer a couple times but would always forget about it so I kind of went into this movie blind. I did end up enjoying the film, but more so because of the interesting story behind this Barry Seal person, since the actual directing of this movie was not the best.
So as I said, the film is enjoyable. It's interesting, Barry Seal's always up to something different and ridiculously complex, and to see his situation spiral and spiral out of control is a pretty great watch.
The film is directed in a way that they explain the story to us in different ways, be it voice-over, home-video-styled explanations, fast montages and diagrams, etc. Which makes it a bit interesting but it also felt like sometimes the movie was trying to be too different and it came across as too much effort on the director's part. I think this was more jarring in the first 30 minutes or so, though, where they try to make it seem like a semi-documentary, with shaky handheld camerawork . It does get better after a while though (or maybe I just got used to it).
The film is also quite funny. It's not just ridiculous how involved Barry gets in things, but you can also see the enjoyment in Tom Cruise's face when he's acting, and I think that just added to your enjoyment of watching him do all these things knowing that he's going to fail, as anyone who tries to outdo himself eventually does.
There were also some pretty funny moments in explaining the plot (for example there's one part where they're talking about how a drug smuggling operation didn't work out, and it cuts to these photos of someone in jail with drugs taped to her body under her clothes). This kind of thing happens quite a bit and I guess, gun to my head, I'd have to say that the director did a good job taking the risk even if it meant I didn't like some of the other things he did.
I think it's just because the film tried to have a real 80's vibe to it, but I mean a movie doesn't need to have an 80's home-doco vibe just because it's set in the 80's. It's perfectly fine to direct an 80's film as normal.
The cast did a decent job too, even though a lot of the supporting actors didn't get that much screen time. I get that Domnhall Gleeson's character was meant to be some kind of a scumbag, but I just didn't like his smug look every time he was talking to Barry Seal. But of course that's just my bias because I love the sweet, innocent Domnhall from other films.
In the end, this movie is nothing memorable. My review of this is already an indicator that I couldn't remember much of the actual movie since I didn't really go that in-depth on it, but I do recall finding it quite enjoyable. I guess it's just really forgettable, and if it weren't about a really interesting pilot-turned-undercover-CIA-drug-smuggler story then I probably wouldn't remember anything at all about.
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