A brilliant mix of Oscar bait and quality entertainment

Rating: 10/10 (13 October 2014)

Argo is based on the declassified true story about a CIA agent who went into Iran and rescued 6 Americans under the cover of a movie producer. It won best picture 2012. I'm not too fond of the academy's decisions normally, but for once they made the right choice. Argo does deviate from the facts a bit, but that makes the film even more enjoyable. Unlike most other best picture winners, which are mainly either about history or an important issue, this is both a work of exceptionally high quality and an entertaining blockbuster that did great work at the box office. Acting wise, everyone does fine but Alan Arkin completely steals the film as a film producer and what is most surprising about the film is that it's actually very funny. The script is absolutely electric and consistently made me laugh, which I wasn't expecting at all. The film is also nail bitingly tense and that brilliantly made escape sequence is more stressful than rush hour on the tube.
Argo is consistently exciting and witty throughout, and doesn't really dip much. The settings and characters are recreated with brilliant attention to detail as well, and despite the historical inaccuracies they do not detract from the film. Some backlash appears to have hit Argo but what else was meant to win? Life Of Pi was good and visually amazing but it was too long and had too many dips, Lincoln was excellent but far too slow, Zero Dark Thirty is awful and Silver Linings Playbook is too slight for the academy. It's both Oscar worthy and fun, and made 2 hours vanish. It automatically makes up for Pearl Harbour and it shows Ben Affleck is one of the best actor turned directors out there and long may he continue to get directing gigs. Overall, Argo is a fantastic mix of suspense, humour and historical detail and anyone with even the slightest interest in history should go and see it. Perhaps the most entertaining history lesson of all time.
10/10