Review of Argo (2012) by Kenneth H — 04 Oct 2015

The opening sequence showing the storming of the embassy in Tehran was really intense and well-done. When I was watching it I felt like I was actually there at the embassy feeling the emotions that the people at the scene must've been feeling at the time.

The movie more or less goes downhill from there. While the story is pretty interesting, the movie is marred by all the overly snappy and pretentious dialog. The film's writers were trying too hard to make the sharp banter among the various government officials and film executives be witty, and it came off as overdone and just lame. (Argo has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; I'm hoping it doesn't win.).

Alan Arkin's performance was overrated; it was decent but not extraordinary. He doesn't deserve the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor he was nominated for.

This movie in general is overrated. I mean, it held my attention and kept me entertained throughout its duration, but other than that there wasn't much else to it. It wasn't a very deep movie, and it felt rather shallow after I was done watching it.

The movie does have some moments of tension and suspense - like with the ongoing reconstruction of the documents shredded at the embassy that reveal the escapees' identities. But a lot of the drama feels fabricated, especially all the useless melodramatic whining and moaning we had to endure every time they showed the escapees at the Canadian ambassador's house. As the escapees were finally leaving Iran, the movie couldn't just let them leave normally (as I'm sure was how it actually happened). No, the movie insisted on awkwardly shoehorning in a cheesy and ridiculous drama/action sequence that you could automatically tell was fabricated. Did the filmmakers think anyone would actually believe that an action movie-style runway chase of a departing airplane happened in real life? What was going to happen next - an Iranian supercop leaps from the pursuing truck onto the wing of the plane and tenaciously clings to it as it takes off into the sky? Give me a break.