Why I Am Catholic
Or should I say ARGOSEEIT! You’ll “get” that after you do.
I know I’m way out of my depth here, recommending movies and such, but my wife and I went and saw Ben Affleck in Argo last night and I recommend that you do too.
Boldly going on Facebook and telling the world to go see a film is something I rarely do. The last time I did something as foolhardy as this, it was to recommend Moonrise Kingdom, which is Wes Anderson’s best film ever. Joe Six-Pack knows.
But now I’m stepping rashness up a level and telling both readers of the blog AND my friends on Facebook to go see a film too. I blame Tony Rossi for the recommendation, because reading his review is what prompted me to see the film.
I’ll simply point you to his review because he knows what he’s talking about.
“Argo:” If It Wasn’t a True Story, It Would Be One of the Most Far-fetched Plots You’ve Ever Heard
Not only do the Americans save the day in the fact-based new movie “Argo,” but they do it without firing a shot or dropping a bomb.
At the start of the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 when revolutionaries stormed the American embassy and took 52 people hostage, six U.S. diplomats managed to escape the embassy before the revolutionaries took over. They found a safe haven in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber) who risked his own life by taking them in and hiding them. The CIA finds out about the hidden diplomats and knows that if they’re discovered, everyone involved will be executed in the streets. So how can they get them out of Iran?
Exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) offers the best of a group of bad ideas: join forces with Hollywood to come up with a cover story that the six Americans are actually a Canadian film crew location scouting Iran for a ridiculous science fiction movie called “Argo.”
Mendez will fly into Iran with fake passports and backstories for the six diplomats, then teach them their cover stories. All of them would then pretend they’re a film crew while walking past the airport security checkpoints – including past the brutal Iranian Revolutionary Guard – and fly out of the country on a Swiss Air flight. If it weren’t a true story, it would be one of the most far-fetched plots you’ve ever heard.
Indeed, it does. Trailer time!
But don’t just take it from me and Tony and the trailer. I can’t say for him, but be advised that my wife enjoyed the film too. So it’s a win-win, date night wise.
My blogfather Webster Bull (and his wife) saw it last night too and he reviewed it over at Witness. Let’s just say that when he says the film is “terrifying, thrilling, hilarious, and humane,” it’s a must see. Steven D. Greydanus (aka, “the Grey”) weighs in with a positive review.
And my last, and most trusted, “tell,” Metacritic, does too. Their ranking system gave the film an 86, which is solidly in the green area, inhabiting the same levels as Of Gods and Men, for example, and pull two points higher than Moonrise Kingdom did.
I say again, ARGOSEEIT!
And now for the other movie stuff. The next big film that I’ll be bugging you out comes out in December. It’s the film adaptation of the Broadway hit Les Misérables. Who’s in it? Hugh Jackman, Oscar® winner Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, and thousands more.
Before last nights film, they ran this extended preview. It’s here that I learned that all the singing done for the film was done live, folks. Yes, you read that right.
Wow! I’ll violate every rule for using exclamation points in writing that your brilliant, but bland, professor of English composition ever chastised a classroom with. Because that film is gonna be OUTSTANDING!!!
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