Tom Cruise is a movie star, and though I have misgivings about him as a person, I am an unabashed fan of his movies. He just knows his genre and embraces it whole heartedly. In American Made, he is an unhappy airline pilot who is approached by a CIA operative to become a gun runner for the CIA, delivering weapons to central American countries ostensibly to help quash communist regimes. In the process he in noticed by drug kingpins who entice him to take a few things back to the US on his return trips.
All of this is done with a certain disbelief in how it came to be by Cruises character, which is helped by some voice overs by Cruise along the way to explain his state of thought. The subject matter lets itself to horror and blood, yet the movie treats it like a regular guy who stumbled into an outrageous situation because of his specific skill set.
It is never explained why they picked him other than to make it clear that he had been watched and the CIA operative knew he had an abundance of moral flexibility that made him easy to seduce into dangerous and dubious activities.
But, I am a fan, so I enjoyed the movie with its weaknesses and feel it is worth the time and money if you too enjoy Tom Cruises movies, if not the man.