95% Argo

All Critics (230) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (219) | Rotten (11)

'Argo' is one of the best movies of the year.

Argo has that solid, kick-the-tires feel of those studio films from the 70s that were about something but also entertained. Only it's as laugh outright amusing as it is sobering.

The movieland satire is laid on thick, but it's also deadly accurate. Schlock has never seemed so patriotic, and Arkin and Goodman have rarely been so good.

Argo is a rollicking yarn, easily the most cohesive and technically accomplished of Affleck's three films so far, but a part of me wishes the director hadn't cast himself in the lead role.

If nothing else, it proves that every so often, the CIA can pull something off - and that yes, Canadians are just about the nicest people on the planet.

The film is a whopper of a tale, one designed for Oscar nominations, Best Picture and Best Director among them.

Ben Affleck's movie tells an amazing but true story set against the context of the Iranian hostage crisis.

Talent borrows and genius steals, but Affleck does something in between: he mimics.

It's impossible to be bored by a story this good, especially with that cast.

Part of what makes this headspinning story believable is the fact that it pans out in an oddly uncomplicated way.

The shaggy and bearded Ben Affleck, barely recognisable from his former self, gives a great lead performance. Understated, intense and steely-eyed, Affleck has the screen presence of legendary actor/director Clint Eastwood.

Affleck the director is utterly sure-footed with an instinctive feel for characterization, tension and pacing as he builds the action towards a nail-biting climax.

A dum-tight thriller demonstrating that Affleck is one of the most accomplished directors working in Hollywood today.

[A] gripping, beautifully performed and often very funny but dramatic thriller.

[Affleck] once again proves, as he did in The Town, that he's a pretty good actor but a great director.

Nailing the tension, the terror and the gallows humour of its story without resorting to jingoism or losing sight of its political context, Argo is a close-to-flawless thriller with a devilishly smart mouth.

Better to watch it as a meta cinema commentary than a historical thriller. Either way, Argo is both smart and fun but ultimately lightweight. Star Wars fans may well cry before the credits roll.

It's to Affleck's credit that he manages to knit Hollywood levity into the genuinely gripping question of whether the embassy Americans can pull this off.

Ben Affleck proves that his transition from blockbuster poster boy to serious dramatic director is now complete...The film's portrayal of America as a superpower under siege serves as a timely comment on the nation's place in the world today.

While I'm not buying into the early Oscar hype for 'Argo,' it is a gripping and exciting story that is mostly true and mostly authentic.

Hold on tight and revel in the brilliance of a riveting film that's enthralling in execution and subtext.

Affleck has crafted a truly old school suspense movie that is as involving as any film I've seen this year.

Given today's headline news from the Middle East, it seems not only frighteningly, jarringly real, but like it could easily have happened last week.

There is an intelligent, funny film waiting to come out of this story; it will have to keep waiting.

With a tension right out of the best of Hitchcock, Affleck directs Chris Terrio's masterful screenplay with a restraint that never overplays the comic elements or overstates the obvious -- and with a velocity that seldom allows you to catch a breath.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/argo_2012/

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