Argo - Written Review

There's been a lot of talk about this movie in terms of great directing and oscar nomination...ness, but how was this movie really?  So what you will about Daredevil and Armageddon, but Ben Affleck seems to have come into his own with directing.  The Town was done well and he's continuing to deliver with Argo.

No relation to Jason and the Argonauts.

I'll be the first to say that this movie generally my cup of tea.  I'm more of an action or sci-fi man, not a drama fan.  So it's saying something when this movie intrigues enough by the trailer alone to make me want to go see it.  Not gonna lie, knowing that Ben Affleck was directing also gave me some hope that it would be good.  And whoever was hired as the art director should get an Oscar too.  Everything was so spot on in this movie from the hair styles to the clothes to the cars to the style of facial hair to the style of the freaking glasses people wore.  This movie was crazy when it came to the detail, which was a BIG part of making this movie feel like it was accurately portraying a story that happened in the 1970's.  That is actually my biggest complaint about period pieces - they don't feel like those periods.  Argo did all that right.

We are them.  We are they.  We are the men in 3-peice suits.

Now the problem with making a movie based on real life events is that you already know how the story ends.  It's history.  It's already happened.  You can wiki this sh*t.  Which is another reason why I'm not a huge fan of movies based on historical events.  Because, again, you already know what happens - you know how the story ended.  So how can this movie be any good, be any interesting when there's no suspense, there's no surprises?  By telling a story about an impossible to escape from scenario and combining it with one of the most hair-brained ideas ever conceived and have it all be true.  If you don't know, the movie is about a small group of Americans hiding in the Canadian ambassador's home after the US embassy was taken in Iran.  The plan to get those people home safely was to make the world believe that a movie was being made in Iran, that these people were the film crew scouting locations in Iran, and having completed their scouting were returning home.  Crazy.  Just insane.  But it happened and it worked.

He wants to know if our refrigerator is running.  What should I say?

It's one of those stories that is so insane that it has to be true.  In conclusion, Argo was one of the best movies I've seen this year.  One of those movies where everything across the board was good or great.  The directing, the editing, the pacing, the script, the acting, the art direction, the costumes; just everything was done well.  Even knowing how it ends, Ben Affleck is able to create very tense moments where you're not sure if they're going to make it.

Film Crazy Adam strongly approves and recommends this movie.