Argo

Argo directed by Ben Affleck starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, and Alan Arkin.

First off this movie had no reason to be as good as it ended up being.  Secondly this movie is a prime example of how much Hollywood is in love with itself.  Now I’m not going to talk about this movies’ historical accuracies, I’m just going to view it as a movie and see if it holds up.  For me it held up.  I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting.  I also think one of the best things I like about this movie is that when Ben Affleck went out to make this movie, he wasn’t thinking about winning an Oscar.  I think he just wanted to make a movie he believed in, because this movie doesn’t have all the frills and whistles of the type of movie it’s supposed to be or the typical movies that seem to jam pack the summer assemble line.  Instead this movie just tells a story.  The story drives the whole movie and if there is one flaw in the movie I think it’s that there’s no real character development.  Even saying that though I will take a movie with a good a storyline versus the other junk Hollywood keeps mass producing.  I’m just really glad this movie clicked with the public and made money.  This is a very proactive movie about America and most of Americans like those kinds of movies, including this American.  

Who would have ever thought Ben Affleck would continue to have it in him to direct like he’s directing.  I still need to see his movie The Town, but after I watched Gone Baby Gone I said I’d keep seeing any movie he makes.  And this movie just goes to show how Gone Baby Gone was no fluke.   Yet for all the Hollywood loving this movie got I’m still shocked it wasn’t directed by anyone when Oscar time came around.  After seeing a good majority of the movies nominated for the grand prize of stupidity, I personally think the best films nominated were, as follows: Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty, and Argo.  Other than that though, this was still a good movie with some great editing to build tension and just enough showing of character to make us care for the six Americans trapped in Iran and for Affleck’s character as well.  The moment with his son on the phone was a good touch of showing some character as it also played into the plot as well.  

It’s a good movie.  I just don’t think it’s going to stick with me the same way as Silver Linings Playbook has (I’ve been thinking about that movie all day, continuing to play through scenes in my head and work out all of the character development I can remember).  Regardless Argo is a good movie, see it.