History be damned! This movie is tremendously entertaining.

Rating: 9/10 (1 April 2015)

"Argo" is a great thriller and heist film. It also happens to be a great period piece, with everything down to the smallest details perfectly recreated. With some films based on a true story, the bits that are added for dramatic cinematic purposes feel artificial and stand out but not in this case. While there are some parts that are fictional, they fit right into the story and add to a climax that is already so tense you'll only think to yourself that it may not have happened exactly that way long after the credits are over. The story the film is based on is so bizarre you will have trouble pin pointing fact from fiction, which also helps making the experience immersive. I'm no history buff and know little of the actual events that actually happened, but I found the movie so entertaining I didn't even mind that the script takes a significant amount of glory away from the foreign embassies that were involved in the real-life events and give it to others. A particularly strong point for me was the casting. Its spot on, some of the best "people being cast as real-life people from news stories" that I've ever seen. During the end credits there are comparisons between the actors and the real people and I was blown away to see that the casting director not only found great lookalikes, but also people that could carry the material they were given. The film is funny at times and it's incredibly suspenseful when it isn't. The beginning starts a little slow, but this is to build up the story and really immerse the audience into the time period. It's hard to describe how genuine and realistic the movie feels, with so many little pieces falling perfectly into place and this makes the movie very easy to recommend. I found "Argo" to be surprising, very enjoyable and concrete proof that Ben Affleck is a force to be reckoned with. (Theatrical version on the big screen, October 23, 2012)