Barry Seal is a bit of a dick; he’s the kind of pilot who will inflict fake turbulence on a whole plane full of people just to wake up his snoozing co-pilot. So it’s rather a good thing that he gets out of the piloting business and into, well, okay, the piloting business, but this time for the CIA, where he’s a lot less likely to toss the cookies of poor little Jay Asshole as he tumbles me across the skies.
Barry is taking aerial reconnaissance pictures of whatever his CIA contact tells him to. The pay is peanuts but it’s exciting work, and Barry is exactly the kind of guy who would get off on it – in fact, he can’t help making videos of himself “confessing” to all of his secret CIA missions, boasting to an unseen, future audience, even though it’s the 1980s and the selfie wasn’t even technically invented yet.
If you’re picturing this guy as cocky, then you’ll understand why Tom Cruise is the perfect guy to play him. Of course, when the missions go from photographing Escobar to running drugs for him, both the money and the thrills (which the rest of us would call “risk” or even “danger” and quite possible “a really bad idea”) increase 
exponentially. In real life, Barry was, erm, a bit of a heavy set guy; the cartels referred to him as El Gordo, as in, the fat one. In the movie, the only fat thing about him is his wallet. And forget wallets – this guy had nearly every single person in a small town working for him, driving fancy-ass (and super conspicuous cars), his wife draped in jewels like she wandered off the set of a rap video. The town even built him his own bank vault. Barry was a lot of things, but he wasn’t real great at hiding money.
The movie turns out to be an interesting mix of recklessness and cynicism. There’s a lot of energy and action pumping in all directions but not a lot to insight as to the corruption and compromise. Fun but forgettable.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
I watched this film and was so surprised that he looked nothing like Tom Cruise. It would have been better if the makers of Narcos told true story in a one off special on Netflix. Great review.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very interesting. I’m not much of a fan of Tom and I generally avoid stuff he’s in, but I’m really intrigued. Damn!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Spot on review. I enjoyed it because of Cruise doing his Cruise thing but I can’t remember much other than the basics of it all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fun but forgettable, an ironing movie then. Cheers Jay.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I enjoyed this one, and you’re right–Cruise was perfect for the role.
LikeLike
Tom Cruise playing a variation of himself? No thanks.
LikeLike
I had wondered if this was worth my time. I guess it’s the perfect film for when I’m knitting something really intricate, and I want to pay more attention to it than the thing playing on the TV 😉
LikeLike
A small part of me still wants to watch this no matter what anyone says. lol
LikeLike
Top form Jay, as usual. Too bad they didn’t get Russell Crowe to play the lead instead of Cruise. It would have been more realistic–as for the El Gordo part–and more interesting. You don’t need it (you’ve got volume child) but I’m liking this anyway.
LikeLike