ARGO
While promoting his new film Argo, Director/Actor Ben Affleck and various talk show hosts poked fun
at the changes he made to his physical appearance for the film.Well it was all worth it because Argo
is one of the best films of the year.
The film opens with a brief history lesson that brings us up to speed to the subject matter of the film.
When the United States took in the recently deposed Shah of Iran,this set off a chain of events:
giving Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, supreme power and Islamic militants taking over the U.S. embassy in Tehran
and taking most at the embassy hostage.There were 6 that evaded capture and hid in the home of Canadian ambassador
Ken Taylor (Victor Garber) but with the militants going over every bit of documents shredded at the embassy
it wouldnt be long before the 6 would be found and possibly killed.
I was very young at the time of these events,but i do recall certain things and i sought them out in the film,and
Affleck nailed every one of them.He completely captures,the look and the feelings of that time period.
From the tied yellow ribbons to Presidents Carter's strong stance against Iran,from the eyewear to
a Mcdonald's bag.
No one is short changed in the film what the hostages experienced,the aggravation,and fears of the six
in hiding,and CIA specialist Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) who comes up with the plan of using the guise
of making a sci fi film in Iran and the six as the crew of the film in order to get them out of Iran safely.
Equally good are Alan Arkin as producer Lester Siege and John Goodman as make up artist John Chambers,
and ,Bryan Cranston as C.I.A supervisor Jack O'Donnell.
I liked how the film not only pokes fun at the Hollywood machine,but also how if you are going to sell
anything or make it believable in this life you have to dress it up,and dressing up the faux sci fi
film was of vital importance from fake posters in Hollywood mags,to script reads and press parties.
Argo,has humor,drama and all the right moments of edge of your seat tension,even though i new the
outcome,and that says something for the Director Affleck and the writer Chris Terrio of this
stunning film.I see a lot of awards in it's future.
Scale of 1-10 a 10
SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS
Seven Psychopaths is one of the most insane and unpredictable films i have ever had the pleasure of watching.
Sam Rockwell as Billy Bickle is the psycho from which most of the madness stems,an actor with
a screen writer buddy Colin Farrell as Marty Faranan with writer's block and Christopher Walken as Hans
who assists Bickle in kidnapping dogs and then collecting the reward.Everything seems to be going well until they take the dog of
a psycho gangster Woody Harrelson as Charlie Costello.
This flick completely threw me off and i liked it.I found myself moved by an intense moment and then shocked
and laughing at an over the top violent moment.The whole cast is great and they all look like they are
having a good time great moments from Tom Waits as Zachariah Rigby a rabbit carrying psycho
and even though some of the characters express what may or may not happen in the film i was still
surprised by some of the turns in the script.
The numerous and overlapping story strands start to wear thin towards the end of the film but this is a flick
that would make any fan of Pulp Fiction happy and Quentin Tarantino bow down with praise.
Scale of 1-10 an 8
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