Argo Fuck Yourself

Best picture winning film Argo is at the top of my list for must see films. Ben Affleck's third feature length film (Gone Baby Gone, The Town) earned him a Golden Globe for Best Director as well as the Golden Globe for Best Picture of the Year in the Drama category. Affleck did not win the Academy Award for Best Director (Ang Lee, Life of Pi) which was a fantastic movie, KGJets has a nice article on it. Now I don''t have a problem with Affleck not winning, what I do have a problem with is the fact that he didn't even get a nomination. Never the less the film took home the award that is in the spotlight the most, and mind you it was up against some real heavy hitters, Life of Pi, Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, as well as Amour, and Beast of the Southern Wild. Argo is a brilliant film with a cast that was second to none, a true story with highs and lows tons of drama and one of the happiest endings you'll see

Now I'm going to get into a minor plot recap, without spewing to many spoilers. The years 1979, Tehran Iran, the United States Embassy, its getting overran but angry Iranians. These Iranians were angered at the US because during their own revolution The Shah had cancer and was receiving treatment for it in the United States, thus pissing off an already pissed off country. The radicals decided to storm the Embassy and take American civilians hostage, and would not release them until the Shah was sent back to Iran. During the chaos six Americans managed to escape and able to find refuge in the Canadian Ambassadors home.

Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) is a CIA agent, an exfils specialist, exfils short for extraction, basically making Mendez the best at getting people out of places the don't belong. After a few conferences with high level CIA personal, it appears no ideas seem to be plausible in order to safely extract the six escaped Americans.While on the phone with his son and idea sparks in Mendez head, an idea so crazy that it just might work.

Mendez contacts the head of his division Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston) and fills him in on this idea. The idea is to contact real Hollywood personnel to create a "fake" movie in the hopes that Mendez can fly to Iran use the six Americans as part of his "film crew" hop on plane and bring them home. John Chambers (John Goodman) was an award winning makeup artist at the time and has worked with Mendez in the past was first called upon about the project. After Chambers was on board they needed a trusted well know, well respected film producer, Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) fit the role perfectly. The trio began rummaging through scripts to use for their "movie" Tony seems to find the perfect fit a Star Wars knock off that takes place in the desert titled...Argo. Team sets up an entire production company, publicizes the film, hypes it up in various ads in Hollywood magazines and papers, the group goes as far to have a full reading of the script at the Beverly Hills Hotel. During this scene in the film is where we run into the ongoing joke of the movie when Siegel is approached by a reporter and doesn't like the questions hes asking him and proceeds to tell him to fuck himself in a sly way.

After the movie is green lit its crunch time for Mendez and the CIA, making fake identifications, background stories, and figuring out a way to bypass one of the most intense security stricken airports at the time. While all this is going on Iranian kids and women are sifting through the thousands of shredded documents to match up the six missing Americans faces using their government profiles. eventually Mendez gets to the Canadian ambassadors house...the rest is up to you to watch!

Argo is a movie that is not only a staple in American film with its Best Picture win, but its also a part of American history a big one at that. Its a film that is what you would consider a roller coaster ride, but not like your old wooden rickety coasters, a modern day steel track smooth ride. The movie is emotional in every aspect because there is such a strong connection with the characters and you just don't want to see them fail. Argo...best picture worthy one hundred percent.

Magnum Rating 9.6/10