Argo (Film Review)

It's 2 for 2 to Ben Affleck. Will he still live up to our expectation for his third directorial debut?

Argo is a real-life story of the rescue mission of the 6 US embassy hostages in the Iranian crisis. The year is 1979, Iran has reach its boiling point and kidnapped 52 Americans in the US embassy unit. But only 6 were lucky enough to escape and sneaked into the residence of a Canadian. CIA exfiltration specialist Tony Mendez thinks of an idea of going on a fake movie location hunt on Iran to let the refugees get them out to the country safely. The rescue mission was been hidden as a secret and been declassified by the government.

So before I start-off this review, I will give my thoughts on Ben Affleck. I was 7 then when I first saw Daredevil for the first time, and I admire him as an actor and imitate his looks and hair blah blah blah. I thought the movie was good (back then, I don't know what I am seeing at that age). His first directorial debut Gone Baby Gone was alright, it stands a chance as a decent crime-drama film. His second film The Town was freaking amazing. One of the best film of 2010 and it was intriguing as it is. I love Ben Affleck both as a director and an actor. I respect him that way because he stays true and passionate on his films. Anyways, here's my thoughts on Argo.

Hands down, hands down. Argo was arguably the best film of the year. In my opinion, I thought it was better than Affleck's past two films. It stays intriguing and made the audiences glued to their seats. Ben Affleck has done it again and stays true to the events its based on. The first shot of the movie was really well-crafted and very dramatic at the same time.

The first half of the movie turned out to be very slow. People might call it boring and no action but I really disagree on that. There's a lot of things going on the first half you shouldn't dare to miss. The hostages, the consultation meetings and the escape of the 6 hostages were really important to the story. It was a good build-up to the next and final half of the movie were it turned to be a fast-paced, nail-bitting, nerve-wrecking ride to anybody who watches it. To admit, I was sweaty in the final 30 minutes of the movie because of how thrilling it was.

For the performances, Ben Affleck was good in this movie. I can't imagine what would happen if a Latino was playing Mendez but it would have been better because the real Mendez was in fact a Latino. Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston was on half the movies released this year, and still did a great performance. John Goodman and Allan Arkin provides the humor and laughs in the film and I thought they were both good. Even the actors who portrays as the hostages was also good.

The movie has a lot of 70s and 80s popculture references geek will surely enjoy. The movie Argo was a rip-off of Star Wars and if it will be actually released, it will be the worst sci-fi movie to date (well not the Argo released this week but the film Argo that they pretend to make). Performances were great. Cinematography is also great. Pacing, not bad. This film was sure a good buy when it comes on home video, but please be sure to watch it on theater to get the best experience of the movie.

'Argo' was a thrilling, suspenseful movie that stays true to the events it was based on. Ben Affleck brings us his best movie to date and did a really well-done job on the director's chair. Argo f**k yourself!

The geek rates it 9.4/10. I will be back for my review of Looper, Frankenweenie and Skyfall.

Argo is currently showing on Philippine cinemas distributed by Warner Bros.

Special thanks by the way to Warner Bros. for inviting me to the advance screening although I missed it!

For now, why not check a featurette for Argo: