In hindsight, everything seems funny.
Except scary drug dealers.
You could really explain this movie as "Forrest Gump" of the drug muling world, because that's what it is. A Southern simpleton who mules drugs for incredibly famous drug kingpins but is funded by our government. It's based on a true story (which means it's full of shit).
Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) is bored out of his mind TWA pilot who smuggles small time Cuban cigars and is caught by someone claiming to be a C.I.A. operative (Shaefer). Obviously that name is changed to protect the incredibly guilty. The plan was simple, fly guns to the Contras to fight a war against the regime in power in South America. Except, those guys were lazy. In comes a three headed drug dragon with the most famous being Pablo Escobar. Barry gets the bright idea to trade the guns for drugs and sell the drugs for money. This plan goes SO well, and is supported inadvertently by the government that Barry and his wife Lucy (Sarah Wright Olsen) run out of places to hide cold American cash.
This is a study in how things can spiral out of control until you lose it all but regain...a little bit of balance again. And how ridiculous bureaucracy creates strange international bedfellows.
The movie does lose a ton of gas towards the end. The movie is shot like a poor VHS movie, which is shocking since Cruise is in it. And there are a TON of questions left unanswered. This felt like director Doug Liman's attempt at making an Oliver Stone movie. And for the most part it works. Tom Cruise is...well, he's a dope with a accent that slips back and forth. And the lesson in drug history in South America is fascinating (as usual). Yet, nothing you couldn't learn in an interesting documentary on the subject. Should I recommend this?
Yeeeeeeahh....okay. I guess. It's a great matinee watch. Otherwise, the stakes aren't all that high. But it moves fast enough.
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