Argo Movie Reviews

Argo is 2012 drama/thriller movie directed by Ben Affleck who is also staring in the same along with big names such as Bryan Cranston and Alan wolf Arkin.

Firstly, I'll talk about the cinematography, sound ans performances by all the artist. It is fabulous. Ben Affleck is on his way to become a great director and this movie proves it. The movie has very steady flow and the music compliment the theme and keeps viewer engaged and sooths the whole experience for them. All the artist casted are a perfect fit to the plot and theme line of the movies.

Now, after reading this you must be wondering why I gave only 2 stars. You should, but I'll explain myself with 2 facts. First, they have released this movie with a tag of "based on a true story", it's true but they have manipulated and shadowed it with lot of spice and Cooked it so much that the truth is now something else. If talking factually, the main role beared for the extraction of those 6 American was beared by canadian embassy but in the movie the have not been close-to-nothing of a appreciation or recognition dnd all of this is done only to show that america is great and self sufficient. I'll give appreciation to the crew for making a nail bitter thriller but when they can't simply show the truth then they shouldn't have tagged it with based on a true story, they should've tagged it by "inspired by a true story".

Secondly, my dislikeness for this movie increased when I got to know that it is a academy award winner of 2013. The academy is often critisised for many not-so-worhty selection but this one was horrible. The've manipulated truth for mere entertainment. If academy keeps on awarding such movie with best Movie winner then many other directors and writers will do the same which not just be bad but horrifying. It's unfortunate that spotlight was released few years later which was also well directed and packed with great performances but it has one thing which argo didn't, that is simply showing truth with no spice for extra entertainment.

Ok guys, that's my review of Argo. Hope you liked it. Follow for more such reviews of Hollywood movies.

Thanks for your time.??

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Just so we're straight, Ben Affleck doesn't merely direct Argo, he directs the hell out of it, nailing the quickening pace, the wayward humor, the nerve-frying suspense. Hold off on the sniping. I didn't say Affleck was the next Hitchcock. I'm saying job well done. Argo takes Matt Damon's BFF out of his native Boston, where his first two directing jobs were set(Gone Baby Gone, The Town), and zaps him onto a global stage, namely the 1979 Iran hostage crisis that saw 52 Americans held captive for 444 days. Affleck does himself proud, detailing the attack on the American Embassy in Tehran by Islamic student militants and the plight of six U.S. embassy staffers who escaped but needed help to get out alive. Argo is a ferociously exciting thriller. Yes, it's based on fact. Yes, that's Hollywood code for truth-stretching. But, no, you shouldn't be that worried.

And speaking of Hollywood, that's where the truth of Argo becomes stranger than fiction. Top CIA extractor Tony Mendez(Affleck cannily underplays except for a scary Seventies haircut that's the tonsorial equivalent of shag carpeting) enlists the dream factory to get his escapees out of hiding – they're cocooned for nearly three months by Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor(Victor Garber) – and on a plane to safety. Not only does Mendez pose as a Canadian film producer scouting Iran to film a fake sci-fi epic called Argo, he must train each of his six charges to persuasively play members of a film crew. Rich satire is mined as Mendez makes the phony Argo movie look legit, complete with casting calls, production meetings and posters. He gets help in L.A. from real-life Planet of the Apes makeup artist John Chambers(John Goodman, wonderfully droll) and Lester Siegel(Alan Arkin), a composite of every film producer who ever barked his way to being boss. Arkin is comic perfection, relieving the stress with deliciously cynical line readings.

As the tension mounts, with protesters savagely rocking the van carrying the crew as they drive through the Grand Bazaar(a great sequence), you'll feel nothing but grateful for the Arkin-Goodman shenanigans.

Everything culminates in the film's final third, as Affleck takes the next step in what looks like a major directing career. There's no doubt he's crafted one of the best movies of the year. Added props to Chris Terrio, whose gathering storm of a script puts the major players in motion: Mendez and his nervous embassy workers speed off for the airport. CIA boss Jack O'Donnell(a superb, soulful Bryan Cranston) sweats out the "best bad idea" the agency could concoct. Chambers and Siegel keep their sham B movie humming in L.A. Only the Canadians, who spearheaded the rescue, get short shrift.

The Argo operation stayed top secret until Clinton declassified it in 1997. But given current U.S.-Iran relations, the film practically screams with topicality. Shot by the gifted Rodrigo Prieto(Brokeback Mountain), with Istanbul standing in for Tehran, Argo has a propulsive energy that sweeps you along. And if the jacked-up climax, with its narrow escapes and a chase down the tarmac, doesn't jibe with pedestrian reality, don't sweat it. That's Hollywood for you.

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Yesterday while travelling I watched a movie over my android,  which I wanted to watch from long time.  Finally got to watch this Oscar winning movie named 'Argo' which is directed by Ben Affleck. And I thoroughly enjoyed the movie,  it's a must watch and a good 2hr time pass. Lets see the storyline.

It is based on a true event. The story is adapted from a CIA operative Tony Mendez's book 'The Master of Disguise' and Joshuah Bearman's 2007 article in Wired magazine about the famous 'The Canadian Caper' escape. In an historical event, iranian junta stormed the US embassy  in nov 1979 when US president Jimmy Carter provided Shah asylum and taken the embassy personnel hostage.  But 6 escaped, who later got refuge at Canadian embassy. But before iranian find out about the missing 6, US government tries to get them out of Iran. For this they hire CIA exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck). After analyzing all the escape plans, they come to know that each of those will fail, Tony gave them an unusual plan . He will go to Iran as a Canadian film producer, for a 'Star Trek in desert' kind of science fiction film, to look for exotic locations, and while coming back he will fake papers of all 6 refugees and show them as canadian film crew and take them back. Why the impersonation of canadian nationals because the iranian guards and people are looking for US people only.

For this Tony need to find authentic film personal who will help in creating this fake movie. He meets famous Hollywood make-up artist John Chambers ( John Goodman) and film producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin). Together they created a phony film studio, started making costumes, bought an unused script which resembles their premises and prepare other novelties related with the film, promoted it, throw a launch party so that it looks like an authentic film to everybody else. They named the film 'Argo'. The film goes on for 2 hrs to show all the proceedings till here and after this that how Tony pulls out this unbelievable escape.

The movie invites some controversies and there are some or many historical inaccuracies also, you can blame that on cinematic liberty taken by the director producer of the film who is Ben Affleck but without taking that you cannot make a movie which would account for trueness and also not be boring at the same time means to make a commercially successful film you have to do something here and there.  The story, execution of the movie was perfect, with an equally perfect screenplay and with an apt background score. The film won the 'Best Film' award at the last year oscar award ceremony and many says that it was more of a political decision rather than a cinematic one, well I cannot comment on that but I can say one thing and that is movie is really engrossing and made with a good effort.  I watched the 2 hr movie in one sitting. Ben Affleck was top class in the direction department and as well in acting department too. He was the main lead and given one of his best performance. The 6 actors who donned the role of 6 embassy officials are also good, plus Victor Garbor who played the canadian ambassador was also good in his small role alongwith the actress who played canadian house-maid. Alan Arkins and John Goodman (if you remember Fred Flintstone from old Hollywood movie Flintstone) also did well in their small roles.

The locations looks authentic, though the film was shot in LA and other US locations and in istanbul. It also uses historical archives, video footages related with the event in the film and in the end it shows comparisons of original people indulged and the film cast pictures. If you ask me I will definitely say yes to this movie as it is a gripping political hostage rescue tale with a heart and without being on boring side. My take 4.5/5

GRuchirG

Jai Raam ji ki :)

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Based on a true story, ‘Argo’ is about six Americans, who although escape from being held as hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, have to find refuge in the home of Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor. The film is about the rescue operations undertaken for these six American diplomats.

The film is an absolute must-watch. The cast, that looks amazingly similar to the real men and women involved in the crisis, delivers first-rate performances. Ben Affleck gives a fine performance as an actor and shines as a director.

The year is 1979. During the ongoing Iranian revolution, Islamic ‘revolutionaries’ (or the terrorists as the Unites States refers to them as) take over the U.S. embassy in Tehran. This action is in retaliation for the support given to their recently-deposed Shah by the U.S. While sixty-odd diplomats are taken as hostages, six of them (four men and two women) evade capture and find a hide-out in the home of the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber).

No one, except the State Department back home in the U.S., knows about the situation of the six escapees. They then begin to explore options of getting them out of Iran. CIA operative Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a rather improbable idea. It strikes him while watching the sci-fi film ‘Battle for the Planet of the Apes’ that they can create a cover-up that the escapees are Canadian filmmakers, hunting for locations in Iran for a film called ‘Argo’.

So Mendez and his supervisor Jack O’ Donnell (Bryan Cranston), along with a Hollywood make-up artist John Chambers (John Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin), hatch out a plan to start creating buzz around this cover-up movie. They set up a fake studio for this fake film and even hold a presser to get the media to talk about it. Back in Tehran, the situation gets all the more serious as the revolutionaries find out that there have been escapees. They have been trying to put back the shredded documentation that they found at the embassy to look for vital information, the identities of the escapees in particular.

So Mendez enters Iran anyway carrying fake identities, fake film material, fake passports and fake documents. Will the six hostages get rescued? Will Mendez leave them in the lurch? Will the U.S. government ditch the seven Americans stranded in Tehran?

‘Argo’ is a superb ‘political’ film. The scenes, the locations, the props, the body language, the characterization and the costumes are absolutely circa 1979. The best thing about the film is that while it is based on a true incident, there is not too much of ‘history’ and ‘trivia’ thrown in consciously. All the important bits of information are brilliantly etched into the screenplay so there is no need to ‘educate’ the audience with needless narrations and overlaying text.

The on-goings within the U.S. government, the state of the film industry, condition of the people living in Tehran, all of these aspects are portrayed in a very realistic manner. None of this takes away from the ‘suspense’ element in the story. There is no blatant stereotyping. The predicament of all sides has been handled in a very delicate manner. This film is a delight not just for its brilliant performances and gripping screenplay, but also the important bits of history that it provides.

The casting of the film is first-rate. Not a single actor/actress looks/seems unfit for the role that they play. Right from the look to the dialogue delivery to the body language, the cast gets it right! Ben Affleck is brilliant as Tony Mendez. The actors, who play the six escapees, are also superb. The best dialogues have been given to the make-up artist-producer combo played by John Goodman and Alan Arkin. Alan has some hilarious lines in the film. Most of them are take-offs on the film industry. In a tense, dramatic film, such moments provide the much-needed comic relief.

The screenplay (Chris Terrio) is engaging, realistic and has a fine mix of drama, subtlety and humor. Director Ben Affleck superbly gets it all together on the screen. The scenes are very well-written. In most of the scenes, silence has been used fantastically. Joshuah Bearman, who wrote the article ‘Escape from Tehran’, has also been credited as a writer. Overall, the film excels wonderfully in the writing department. The music by Alexandre Despat is splendid. After ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, he scores yet another winner.

One of the best films, based on real-life accounts, made in recent times. Enlightening, entertaining and engaging, ‘Argo’ is a must-watch!

Shivom Oza

For more reviews, visit https://shivomoza.blogspot.in

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