The first trailer for Tom Cruise’s post-Mummy movie, American Made, was just released and it’s the scuzziest we’ve seen Tom Cruise in a while. There’s some ribbing in the LaineyGossip email chain offices about how OF COURSE Tom Cruise crash-lands a plane and walks away—in true Maverick style—but he does it covered in cocaine. And he pays off a kid and takes his bike right after: Not exactly the stuff of heroes. When was the last time we saw Cruise be even a little bit not heroic? Edge of Tomorrow? That came out in 2014. And before that…Tropic Thunder, in 2008. Cruise playing even a slightly scuzzy character is something he pulls out only every few years. And given how f*cking dumb The Mummy looks, I’m much more into this than yet another “Tom Cruise saves the world with sprinting” flick.
Cruise plays Barry Seal, a pilot who goes to work for the CIA in the 1980s running guns and drugs. The trailer acknowledges they’re taking huge liberties with the story, probably either to gin up action, make Tom Cruise look cooler, or both. But I really like the set up. I like how Barry seems kind of dumb in the beginning, I like the way Barry’s wife says, “No!” when he asks if she trusts him, I like the friction between Cruise and Jayma Mays, I LOVE EVERY SECOND OF DOMHNALL GLEESON. This reminds me a little of American Gangster, a little of Top Gun, and a little of Justified (Drew Thompson), and I really like all of those things. And it looks like just enough of a departure from his usual heroics to remind me that when he stops performing and just ACTS, Cruise can be really good, and his best performances, Maverick aside, have been playing scuzzy characters. So yeah, I’m in, American Made.
Speaking of Maverick—Top Gun 2 has an official title and it’s Top Gun: Maverick. So maybe that movie is actually going to happen. Lainey has been joking for years about Taylor Lautner, but seriously, who do you think will play the hotshot young pilot who gets put in his place by Maverick? (There’s no way this movie won’t involve Maverick showing up some young hotshot.) My guess? Liam Hemsworth. (Lainey: my brand new guess is coming up in the next post.)
