Who's Argoing to See This?

Rating: 6/10 (17 January 2013)

Strange. Two CIA/Military films nominated for the 2012 Best Picture Oscars are from the past. Albeit, Zero Dark Thirty's past is a tad bit – 20-30 years – sooner, both that and Argo recount U.S.A.'s "barely achievable" Middle-Eastern's undercover missions of glory.
Here, in Argo, after a series of unforgivable and bad decisions, a sextet of Americans are hiding out in the Canadian Embassy's home in 1980 Iran while their peers are captured and tortured. Argo shows a man's plight to bring them – JUST THE SIX, mind you – home via a fake movie.
The scheme, CIA operative Tony Mendez, constructs seems so implausible, so expensive and so elaborate, that it couldn't possibly work and without surprise, of course it would. Or they wouldn't have made this movie.
Mendez convinces his government peers to fund a lie of a Sci-Fi movie – that strongly reminded me of the awful film, Gentlemen Broncos, to get himself into war-torn Iran to rescue those mostly defiant six U.S. Embassy over-stayed Canadian "houseguests" and morons. Given what I saw recently in Zero Dark Thirty, too bad the technology wasn't with us back then to avoid just a grand concoction just to free these completely uninteresting, selfish and endlessly whining folkand never mind the other countless hostages not living under a great roof, not being well-fed and well stacked with cigarettes.
Now, this all said, I didn't dislike the film that much. I did care for the extreme details Director Affleck paid attention to. And when you already know how this is going to play out, even without knowing the background – like I didn't, it was rather suspenseful towards the end. It was definitely "On-the-edge-of-your-seat" finale.
One thing though: I lived through 1980, and of course, since I'm writing this today, the rest of the 1980s. I hated the style back then. Yuck. Even as realistic as they make these 1980s period piece films, it's so hard for me to like them. Even when I experienced these years, I couldn't wait to get out of that decade.
Neither here, nor there. The movie is a good watch, although it didn't deserve the Best Golden Globe Picture award. But, hopefully will be enjoyed by some while not being praised as "the Best Picture" of the year.