Plot: The true story of how a pilot landed work with the CIA as a drug smuggler during the 1980's.

Films about drugs usually don't get me going nuts for it, before or after seeing the film.
I'm not sure why. It might be because the people we're supposed to pull for are doing illegal stuff.

However, what was enticing me was Doug Liman being director and it starring Tom Cruise.
In terms of Liman's success, I would say he's made any hits as misses. However, he is currently on a pretty good streak at this moment in time. In 2014, Liman probably made the surprise hit of the year in the form of summer blockbuster Edge Of Tomorrow. It was such a shame the box office never matched the reviews. Liman has actually already released a film earlier this year called The Wall which was reall enjoyable.
As for Cruise, I am always interested in whatever his next project. People may associated him with the 1990's, but I still think he has some big films in him. I would say this decade has been a bit of mixed bag. 2017 hasn't been good so far for Cruise as The Mummy was not that good and the general consensus is pretty much the same.

I ended up being surprised at how fun and entertaining it was. The story really is quite extraordinary and chaotic as they say in the trailers. The pacing is solid throughout, there were moments that made me laugh, made me genuinely shocked and another thing that helped me enjoy this, was the fun nature the director had with the story.

Tom Cruise's performance was also a big help for me enjoying this. It was hard to not see Tom Cruise in this role. His presence and charisma worked really well with the tone.
All the supporting and minor roles did their job well. Alejandro Edda, Domhnall Gleeson was a solid support and did well with the little screen time he had and Sarah Wright was perfectly fine also.
Caleb Landry Jones manages to be a bit of scene-stealer for the short time he is on screen. A final note on the performances goes to a couple of actors that I was happy to see, in the form of Jesse Plemons and Jayma Mays.

There was not anything bad about the film. If I was being picky, the cinematography looked a bit messy at times and the shift in tone did not quite work all the time.
But I think the story just not engaging me enough for an exceptional rating could make this a bit of a forgettable picture.

However, I think the fun nature Liman and his team gave to it will make this an above average film of all those other types of drug related movies such as War Dogs or Wolf Of Wall Street. It even had small similarities to Catch Me If You Can.

It definitely won't reach any dramatic heights. But it is still a fun time and entertaining slice of American criminal history. It's one of the few drug films that I would happily watch again.

Rating: 7/10