Customer Reviews

Argo (Bilingual) [Blu-ray + DVD + UltraViolet Digital Copy]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It is important for the viewers of this movie to realize that the story is historical fiction. Many events in the movie were fabricated to dramatize the story. It is okay to do so in a movie if they work, but they don't in this one. For dramatic effects, the scriptwriter follows an old and tired Hollywood formula: imminent danger of exposure, last minute cancellation of the plan, car chase of the plane on the tarmac, etc. I have seen too many movies with that storyline. As a result, the movie is terribly boring. The true story is much more interesting. If all the fabricated dramas were cut out leaving only the true story behind, the movie would have been a lot more authentic and believable. The leading man and director Ben Affleck wears the same expressionless face throughout the movie. He could have done better.

Argo won the Oscar for best picture and the scriptwriter Chris Terrio best writing. The decision reeks of Oscar politics. Critics assert that this happened because the story glorifies Hollywood; the true heroes were the Canadian, and to a lesser extend the New Zealand and the British diplomats, who risked their personal safety to come to the aid of the Americans. Whatever the true story was, Argo remains a boring movie as it is.

It was good from the point of being a fictional movie. Many of the events were made up and the Canadian involvement was suppressed. Giving this movie the Best Picture nod was entirely a political decision.

Too much incorrect "fact" to find it enjoyable. I lived within the military during this actual event and was semi disappointed..

This is an enjoyable and very entertaining film. Good story line and at times a lot of suspense. While based on a true story, this film's fictional treatment clearly does not always give the Canadians their true share of the credit for the actions and events depicted. This worries me a little when the film makers at times try to make it seem more of a documentary than it really is and mix fact with very liberal doses of American fiction. As long it is viewed as entertainment and not education ... a fine film.

This movie was over hyped and did not meet expectations. The director's previous film "Town" was far superior. Zero Dark Thirty should have won best picture, but was denied because of White House Politics. Life of Pi another excellent contender was also worthy of Best Picture.

I thought it was a good movie - but NOT deserving of the Oscar - I was disappointed after all the HYPE!

I did see this move in the theatre. It is action-packed and entertaining. Like so many others here I can't help but think that Ben Affleck climbed on the backs of the brave Canadians who are actually the "stars" here in order to make a movie full of inaccuracies that downplays the importance of our contribution and greatly exagerates the part played by the USA. Former President Jimmy Carter was at Queen's University in Kingston to accept an honorary degree and during his acceptance speech, said he was "taken aback by the inaccuracies" in this movie. He repeated these thoughts on talk shows in the USA. As you all know, he was the sitting president at the time - Joe Clark our Prime Minister and Flora MacDonald our Foreign Affairs Minister. He then went on to state how events actually took place being sure to credit the real heroes of the "Canadian Caper" as it came to be known who were Ken Taylor and John Sheardown. These two people in particular were the backbone and "brains" of the plot and sheltered the Americans for weeks and weeks until the plan could be safely put in place. The Americans flubbed the printing of the passports and only Canadian ingenuity saved the day again. Affleck barely acknowledged our part and gave all the credit to the American Government when in fact they played a much smaller role in the actual planning and rescue. Taylor and Sheardown would have been shot for spies if the Iranians had found out they were "harboring" the Amer1cans. The pity is that those CAnadians who are not old enough to know the facts might never know just how brave and wonderful our Canadian Ambassador and his employees were during this time.

The Americans have no trouble with taking all the credit all the time for everything. They've done it in many movies, particularly war movies involving the First and Second World Wars. TheUS won these battles single handedly seldom ever giving credit to Canadians, Australians, Brits, or anyone else.

In all good concsience I cannot recommend this movie simply because it hides a very important truth and Ben Affleck continues to lie about it in interviews even since the American Award shows.

This was a good film in that it demonstrated how Hollywood can take a real life and death situation and turn it into a vehicle for its star.

i was expecting more from this movie but it was not as good as it could have been.
it was suspenseful..but it was not that good.

I would like to consider film Argo from 3 perspectives: Argo as reflection of historic event; Argo and Oscar; and Argo as a cinematographic genre. A lot was written on the topic of how this film has distorted real historic events in order to portray the greatness of the United States' secret service. However, everything attributed to the American secret service agent was done in reality by the Canadian Ambassador and the stаff of the Canadian Embassy.The genre of the film is obviously a thriller and I believe that a thriller that can deserve an Oscar should have based not on only one character but highly developed plot with a number of extremely talented supportive personages. Who can be named as an Oscar deserving actor in a supportive role? No one. So what has left? Just a thriller and not the best one.