AMERICAN MADE : Tuesday 5th September 2017.

I saw 'AMERICAN MADE' earlier this week, and here we have a biographical drama film Directed by Doug Liman whose previous credits include 'Swingers', 'The Bourne Identity', 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith', 'Fair Game', 'Edge of Tomorrow' and the very recently released 'The Wall'. This story surrounds the life and times of Adler Berriman 'Barry' Seal - an American smuggler of drugs and arms, aircraft pilot, dealer, and money launderer who flew flights for the Medellín Cartel, being an organised network of drug suppliers and smugglers originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated throughout the '70's and '80's in Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Central America, and the USA, Canada and Europe. At the height of its operations, the Medellín Cartel smuggled tons of cocaine each week into countries all over the world and brought in up to US$60M daily in drug profits. For a time, the Medellín Cartel supplied at least 84% of the United States and 80% of the global cocaine market. Barry Seal was employed by the Cartel as a pilot and drug smuggler transporting numerous shipments of cocaine from Colombia and Panama to the USA and earned as much as US$500K per flight. This is that outrageous albeit true story. Released in the UK and Australia in late August, and not in the US until the end of September, the film has so far met with generally positive Reviews, and cost a budgeted US$80M to bring to the big screen, and has so far grossed US$22M.

So history lesson over, here Barry Seal is portrayed by Tom Cruise a former TWA commercial pilot who flew for the company from 1966 through until 1974. We join Seal as he is flying regular short haul flights across the USA and Canada. He has got to know his routes and his in-flight procedures, and the plane he flies like clockwork, so much so that he almost treats his passengers with a familiar contempt.

One day at an overnight stopover, Seal is seen loading several large boxes of Cuban cigars into his briefcase as he is about to exit the cockpit. On arriving at his hotel he hands the briefcase over to a contact behind the Reception desk. Later that evening the airline crew and enjoying drinks at the hotel bar, where Seal takes a seat at a quiet table. On a neighbouring table he notices a man going through the very briefcase he handed over the Reception desk as short while earlier, and examining the boxes of Cuban cigars. The man calls out Seal's name, and Seal acknowledges warily, before the man takes a seat at his table. The man, who introduces himself as Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) seems to know everything about Seal's history, his family and his cigar smuggling scam. Schafer says that the organisation with whom he works (assumed to be the CIA) could use a pilot of Seal's experience and skills. Schafer says that he works for the IAC (Independent Aviation Contractors), and that if Seal were to join them, it could prove to be very lucrative for him.

Seal accepts, and before you know it he has resigned his long term position with a steady salary and employee benefits with TWA and is running his own business under the guise of IAC. Schafer takes Seal to an aircraft hangar in which is a brand new twin prop jet equipped with cameras for taking aerial photographs. He tasks Seal with flying low clandestine reconnaissance flights over Central and northern South America and photograph the various rebel communist camps that are known to exist in secret forest locations. He does this successfully over numerous occasions taking clear overhead photographs (despite getting shot at during almost every fly over by armed rebel forces) that are very well received by Schafer's superiors.

As time passes, Seal finds himself acting as a courier between Schafer's CIA and General Manuel Noriega (Alberto Ospino) in Panama. Seal repeatedly delivers a brown envelope full of cash for Noriega in exchange for secret dossiers on persons and activities of interest to the US Government. Seal sees himself as just a dependable delivery boy who gets things done no questions asked, and this is just another job, done with the full backing and support of the CIA.

During a refuelling stop over in Colombia, Seal is intercepted and escorted by members of the Medellín Cartel, and taken to meet one Pablo Escobar (Mauricio Mejia) and his cohorts. They know of Seal's exploits over their neighbouring countries and territories, and seek his co-operation in flying out their cocaine on his return trips to the US, in a deal that is worth US$2,000 for every kilo he transports. Seal quickly does the maths and decides that this is an offer he simply can't refuse. And so Seal accepts their terms and starts flying routine trips back across Louisiana where he dumps each shipment of cocaine out of the plane as it flies low over scrubland into the hands of eagerly awaiting drug smugglers.

This carries on for a couple of years with Seal running trips twice or three times a week for Escobar and the Cartel. The CIA are aware of this and turn a blind eye, but when Seal is arrested and thrown into a Colombian prison as a result of a raid on Escobar's house during one of Seal's stopovers, then Schafer intervenes and throws him a lifeline. Back in the US, Schafer advises Seal that the DEA are hot on his heals and he needs to relocate himself and his family to the Arkansas town of Mena, and quickly, damn quickly, like before sunrise on the morning that he arrives home all beaten and bruised from his time inside. He quickly musters his wife Lucy (Sarah Wright) and their young family and get the Hell outta Dodge packing up all their worldly possessions into the family station wagon.

Upon arrival at their new CIA organised homestead on the remote outskirts of Mena, Schafer pulls up and takes Seal for a ride to the Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport located on 2,000 acres of remote disused real estate, which Schafer announces now belongs in its entirety to Seal together with everything contained therein. This is to be Seal's business headquarters from where he'll fly largely undetected across to Central and South America in the conduct of his business interests with the CIA. In doing so, and based in sleepy little old Mena, Seal amasses such a fortune in cash that he barely knows where to stash it all. He's livin' the dream, making a very large fortune, and all with the knowledge of the CIA. He has to set up various business in the town through which he can launder his money, and the main bank in Mena give over their vault solely to store Seal's vast quantities of cash money.

In time Schafer asked Seal to run guns to the Nicaraguan right wing Contra rebels which were being secretly funded and backed by the US with both financial and military aid. Seal comes to realise that the Contras were not a serious group of rebels, and so he diverts the guns to the Cartel instead. Meanwhile, Schafer and the CIA set up a Contra training camp at Seal's Mena Airport base, and Seal has to fly in the Contra's many of whom quickly flee when they arrive on American soil. By now Seal has expanded his operations to take in four other pilots and jets, all of whom are on frequent picks up and deliveries and wallowing in cash!

Eventually, the CIA shuts down the training camp as quickly as it was set up. Schafer orders the clearing of all evidence that there was a training camp ever in existence, and leaves Seal to his own devices. At the same time Schafer orders the destruction of all records relating to Seal and his covert activities and all evidence linking Seal to the CIA. Seal smells a rat and orders the clearance of his aircraft hanger base of absolutely everything - cocaine haul, the stash of guns, and bag loads of cash amongst other things. But this exercise proves fruitless as the CIA, the DEA, the FBI, the State Police and other sundry law enforcement authorities including local Sheriff Downing (Jesse Plemons) all descend on Seal in unison in the early hours of one morning. They cuff him and take him into custody. Confronted with the DA and life in prison, the phone rings and its Governor Clinton, who orders the release of Seal from custody, and he's free to go, much to the bewilderment of the DA and all those gathered law enforcement officers.

Subsequently Seal makes a deal with the White House who are after hard evidence that the left wing Nicaraguan Sandinistas are trafficking drugs, and they want Seal to obtain photographic evidence that links the Medellín Cartel to the Sandinistas. Seal flies down to Nicaragua with a cargo plane loaded with two Harley-Davidson motorcycles as gifts for Escobar, and plenty of room to load up with an extra large shipment of drugs and contraband for the return flight home. Unknown to Escobar and the Sandinistas, Seal's flying partner on this mission is snapping secret photographs of the shipments being loaded onto the plane, together with all those involved.

Back home after the dust has settled, Seal and his wife Lucy are sat watching the television news and on comes propaganda reports and photographs released by the White House and in particular one National Security Council member, Oliver North, linking the drug Cartel with the Nicaraguan Sandinista's, and front and centre is Barry Seal's smiling face for all the world to see. Needless to say, upon seeing this Escobar orders a hit on Seal for betraying him and the Cartel, and he is also promptly arrested by the US law enforcement authorities because his face is in the photos implicating him in illegal drugs trafficking.

Appearing in court and facing conviction for drug trafficking, gun running, money laundering and who knows what else, Seal is staring down the barrel of a long jail term. Instead the Judge sentences him to one thousand hours of community service, and he is essentially free to go. With his wife and daughter having moved to Baton Rouge, Seal spends his time looking over his shoulder knowing that there will inevitably be a contract out on him. His community service is to be conducted at a Salvation Army Hostel each evening, the same one, and he spends each night staying in a different hotel in an attempt to lure any would-be assassins off his scent. Eventually, however, Barry Seal is shot to death at the wheel of his car outside that Salvation Army Hostel in February 1986. This brings an abrupt end to the DEA's ongoing investigations, and the CIA seize all the evidence linking themselves to drug smuggling and gun running activities, as was documented in numerous video recordings made by Seal leading up to his death, and contained in the trunk of his car.

This is an amazing true story, an adventure writ large for all the wrong reasons that ultimately nearly toppled the Reagan administration, and cost Barry Seal his life. Tom Cruise puts in a solid and compelling performance as our anti-hero in this piece, and despite his wrong doings you can't help feel an empathy for the character who was just presented with an opportunity and ran with it . . . wholesale, and beyond his wildest dreams, while it lasted. The look and feel of the late '70's and early '80's is faithfully recreated here, and Director Doug Liman weaves an engaging larger than life true story that maintains the interest throughout. But, I would have liked to dig a little more below the surface, as research shows that there was a lot more to Seal's activities than is captured here in the under two hour running time, and, I couldn't help feel that the supporting cast were underdone in terms of their contribution and value to the film. All that said, I enjoyed 'American Made' and I think you will too for Tom Cruise, and for the thrilling true life story, and its far reaching impact, that you couldn't make up if you tried.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 24th August 2017.

With this weeks latest Tom Cruise starring and Doug Liman Directed 'American Made' as Previewed below, I was thinking how many movies have been released over the years with the word 'America' or 'American' in the title? It seems one helluva lot as my research would indicate. Could it be that the good ol' USofA is so patriotic, so intent on self promotion, and so wrapped up in its own national pride that it needs to remind the rest of the world how out there front and centre Uncle Sam is, lest we should forget when we visit a movie theatre. Here is a cross section of some of those more memorable 'America(n)' feature films that have graced our big screens over the years that have borne the moniker of the country, just to remind us how truly great it really is.

* 'American Graffiti' - released 1973 - Directed by George Lucas, starring Harrison Ford, Ron Howard and Richard Dreyfus.
* 'American Gigolo' - released 1980 - Directed by Paul Schrader, starring Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton.
* 'American Buffalo' - released 1996 - Directed by Michael Corrente, starring Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz.
* 'American Pie' - released 1999 - Directed by Paul and Chris Weitz, starring Jason Biggs, Eugene Levy and Chris Klein.
* 'American Psycho' - released 2000 - Directed by Mary Harron, starring Christian Bale, Reece Witherspoon and Chloe Sevigne.
* 'American Splendor' - released 2003 - Directed by Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman, starring Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis.
* 'American Gangster' - released 2007 - Directed by Ridley Scott, starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
* 'American Hustle' - released 2013 - Directed by David O. Russell, starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.
* 'American Sniper' - released 2014 - Directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller.
* 'American Ultra' - released 2015 - Directed by Nima Nourizadeh, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Bill Pullman.
* 'American Made' - released 2017 - Directed by Doug Liman - starring Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson and Jesse Plemmons.
* 'American Assassin' - to be released 2017 - Directed by Michael Cuesta, starring Michael Keaton, Dylan O'Brien and Taylor Kitsch.
* 'An American Werewolf in London' - released in 1981 - Directed by John Landis, starring David Naughton, Griffin Dunne and Jenny Agutter.
* 'The American President' - released in 1995 - Directed by Rob Reiner, starring Michael Douglas, Annette Benning and Martin Sheen.
* 'How to Make an American Quilt' - released 1995 - Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, starring Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft and Ellen Burstyn.
* 'An American Werewolf in Paris' - released 1997 - Directed by Anthony Waller, starring Tom Everett Scott and Julie Delpy.
* 'The American' - released in 2010 - Directed by Anton Corbijn, starring George Clooney.
* 'Once Upon A Time In America' - released 1984 - Directed by Sergio Leone, starring Robert De Niro, James Woods and Elizabeth McGovern.
* 'Coming to America' - released 1988 - Directed by John Landis, starring Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and James Earl Jones.
* 'Air America' - released 1990 - Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, staring Mel Gibson, Robert Downey Jnr. and Nancy Travis.
* 'Made in America' - released 1993 - Directed by Richard Benjamin, starring Whoppi Goldberg, Ted Danson and Will Smith.
* 'Team America : World Police' - released 2004 - Directed by Trey Parker, starring an ensemble cast of voice talent.
* 'Captain America : The First Avenger' - released 2011 - Directed by Joe Johnston, staring Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan and Hugo Weaving.
* 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' - released 2014 - Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, starring Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan and Robert Redford.
* 'Capatin America : Civil War' - released 2016 - Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jnr. and an ensemble cast of Marvel characters.

This week then there are six new movies coming your way of which five are based on real life true story retellings of a biographical nature some of which are big budget big name offerings and others are more low budget independent type fare. That said, these bios feature the stories of a drug and arms smuggler pilot; an intrepid explorer in search of a lost civilisation; a prolific Canadian folk painter; the King of Norway during WWII facing an impossible ultimatum; an Australian cycling team's journey on the pro-tour circuit; and wrapping up with a Aussie suspense thriller that might make you think twice about pitching your tent in secluded bushland.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six new releases as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are here warmly invited to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and meanwhile, enjoy your cinematic experience during the coming week.

'AMERICAN MADE' (Rated MA15+) - here we have a biographical drama film Directed by Doug Liman whose previous credits include 'Swingers', 'The Bourne Identity', 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith', 'Fair Game', 'Edge of Tomorrow' and the very recently released 'The Wall'. Here this story surrounds the life and times of Adler Berriman 'Barry' Seal - an American smuggler of drugs and arms, aircraft pilot, dealer, and money launderer who flew flights for the Medellín Cartel - an organised network of drug suppliers and smugglers originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated throughout the '70's and '80's in Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Central America, and the USA, Canada and Europe. At the height of its operations, the Medellín Cartel smuggled tons of cocaine each week into countries all over the world and brought in up to US$60M daily in drug profits. For a time, the Medellín Cartel supplied at least 84% of the United States and 80% of the global cocaine market. Barry Seal was employed by the Cartel as a pilot and drug smuggler transporting numerous shipments of cocaine from Colombia and Panama to the USA and earned as much as US$500K per flight. This is that outrageous albeit true story. Released in the UK and Australia this week, and not in the US until the end of September, the film has so far met with generally positive Reviews, and cost a budgeted US$80M to bring to the big screen.

So history lesson over, here Barry Seal is portrayed by Tom Cruise a former TWA commercial pilot who flew for the company from 1966 through until 1974. Seal is in turn recruited by the CIA to help in the war on drugs off the back of the emerging communist threat in Central America and soon finds himself in charge of one of the biggest covert CIA operations in the history of the United States. The operation spawns the birth of the Medellín Cartel and almost brings down the Reagan White House administration. Barry Seal was ultimately gunned down and killed in February 1986 by Colombian assassins sent by the Medellín Cartel with a price on his head of US$500K for the murder or US$1M to kidnap him and return him to Colombia. The film also stars Domhnall Gleeson, Jesse Plemmons and Sarah Wright.

'THE LOST CITY OF Z' (Rated M) - here we have another biographical drama adventure film Written and Directed by James Gray and based on the 2009 book of the same name by David Grann. Here this story surrounds the life and times of Percival Harrison Fawcett - a British geographer, artillery officer, cartographer, archaeologist and explorer of South America. Along with his eldest son Jack, Fawcett disappeared in 1925 during an expedition to find 'Z' – the name he gave to a lost ancient city, which he and others believed to exist and to be the remains of El Dorado, in the jungles of Brazil. And so turning to the story at hand in the early 20th Century, British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) journeys into the Amazon jungle, where he discovers evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization that may have once inhabited the region. Despite being ridiculed by the scientific brains of the time back in London, which views indigenous populations as savages, the determined Fawcett, supported by his loving wife Nina (Sienna Miller), son Jack (Tom Holland), and fellow explorer Henry Costing (Robert Pattinson), return to his beloved jungle in an attempt to prove his case. Fawcett and his group disappeared sometime in mid-1925 somewhere in the jungles of Brazil and were never seen again. The film also stars Angus Macfadyen, Ian McDiarmid and Franco Nero, cost US$30M to make and has so far recovered US$17M since its US release in mid-April. The film has received generally positive press.

'MAUDIE' (Rated PG) - here is another biographical romantic drama film Directed by Aisling Walsh about the life and times of popular and prolific Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis who lived in Nova Scotia from 1903 until 1970. This is a simple tale recounting the meeting of local fish monger Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke) and Maud Dowley (Sally Hawkins) who suffers from severe arthritis, when she answers an advertisement for a house keep, taking the job in exchange for room and board because her brother had sold the family home that he had inherited upon the death of their parents. Fairly soon love blossoms and the two marry. In an attempt to maintain a clean house, Maud begins to paint a shelf, and then a wall with flowers and so on, until one day one of Everett's customers is so taken by her artwork that she commissions a piece of Maud's work. From humble beginnings, Maud becomes a beloved figure in the local community and renowned as an artist. The film cost under US$6M to make, and has so far taken US$8M since its Canadian release in mid-April and its US release in mid-June. The film has preformed well on the film festival circuit picking up eight wins so far and another two nominations and has received largely positive Reviews.

'THE KINGS CHOICE' (Rated M) - and here we have yet another biographical drama film, this time of a historical WWII nature and a Norwegian offering that was nominated as a Best Foreign Language Film entry into this years Academy Awards. Directed by Erik Poppe, this film tells the story of a chain of events in early April 1940 when German Nazi troops arrive in Norway's capital city, Oslo, and demand of the King - surrender or die! With the might of the Nazi army hunting them down, the Royal Family flee the capital with King Haakon VII (Jesper Christensen) and his son Crown Prince Olav (Anders Baasmo Christiansen) heading off in one direction, and his wife Crown Princess Martha (Tuva Novotny) and other children seeking refuge in Sweden. After three days of trying to evade the German's, King Haakon refuses to bow down, even if his decision costs him his life, and that of his family and potentially countless Norwegians too. This little known story of these dramatic events in the history of Norway has received much critical acclaim as much for the Directing as the performances by the principal cast, the storytelling and the cinematography. The film cost US$8M to make and has so far grossed US$9M.

'KILLING GROUND' (Rated MA15+) - Written and Directed in his feature debut by Tasmanian Damien Power this Australian suspense thriller wowed audiences when it Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Following a gestation period of about ten years from when Power first had a notion for the film to when it became a reality on the big screen, 'The Killing Ground' was filmed in bushland about an hour out of Sydney. The story centres around a young couple Ian (Ian Meadows) and Sam (Harriet Dyer) out on a camping trip during the height of an Aussie Summer but told from three different perspectives and in a non-linear style - the young and in love couple on a weekend getaway in the bush, a family in peril comprising Dad Rob (Julian Garner), Mum Margaret (Maya Strange) sixteen year old daughter Em (Tiarnie Coupland) and toddler son Ollie, and and a pair of rednecks psychos German (Aaron Pedersen) and Chook (Aaron Glenane) with an appetite for blood. Ian and Sam's weekend break however, takes a more sinister turn and a battle for survival when they discover young Ollie wandering aimlessly all alone about the bush caked in blood and dirt, and discover that a particularly disturbing crime has been committed on the occupants of a neighbouring, yet deserted tent.

'ALL FOR ONE' (Rated M) - we round out the week with yes, you guessed it, another biographical drama this time in the world of long distance sport cycling as told by Directors Marcus Cobbledick (who also writes here) and Dan Jones. Telling the story of GreenEdge, Australia's first unisex ProTour cycling Team who come together through their renegade spirit and a determination to win against all odds on the international circuit. The film offers candid insights into the first five years of their collective journey, bearing witness to the ethos of the team as embodied by all of them - from the strongest to the most embattled rider members of the Team. Out of a culture that seeks to harness a deeply human approach to sport, unlikely champions rise, and seemingly impossible team and personal goals are realised.

With six new releases this week to tempt you out on a cool Winter evening, of which five are of the biographical persuasion and one a work of fiction, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephiles afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-