Argo Reviews
Top CriticAffleck himself turns in a quietly impressive movie star performance. Tony Mendez is a kind of anti-Bourne, comfortable with his anonymity, living off his wits, not his fists.
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.
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| Original Score: 4/4
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.
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| Original Score: B+
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.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
The film is a whopper of a tale, one designed for Oscar nominations, Best Picture and Best Director among them.
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| Original Score: 2.5/4
Argo is a movie of many parts, the sum of which can probably be best described as enjoyable Hollywood hokum.
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| Original Score: 3/4
It's a well-told story that's timely, topical and thoroughly entertaining.
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| Original Score: 3/4
It may not have a lot beyond its outrageous story, but the story is undeniably a doozy, and the movie is a blast.
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| Original Score: B+
If you didn't know otherwise, you'd swear this was the work of a veteran master like Steven Soderbergh.
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| Original Score: 4/4
It's serious and substantive, an ingeniously written and executed drama fashioned from a fascinating, little-known chapter of recent history.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
Even though most people know the outcome, this movie still will have you on the edge of your seat.
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| Original Score: 4/4
The movie is accomplished enough to stand alongside the 1970s political thrillers that inspired it, right down to the vintage red-and-black Warner Bros. logo that opens the film.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Fusing suspense and humor in a political thriller is a tricky prospect, but Argo is more than up to the task.
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| Original Score: 4/4
Ben Affleck doesn't merely direct Argo, he directs the hell out of it, nailing the quickening pace, the wayward humor, the nerve-frying suspense. There's no doubt he's crafted one of the best movies of the year.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
"Argo" exults in what a movie can do when its story has a compelling core.
"Argo" is both an inspiring tale of risk and heroism, and a crackling piece of entertainment.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
With America's tormented relationship with Iran back on the global front burner, "Argo" is also a crafty, reflective mood piece that will leave you thinking about the resounding echoes of that tormented and not-so-distant era.
It's high-class Hollywood, not the low-rent and exploitative route that the make-believe movie at the heart of this tale would have taken.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
The script is snappy, but the real accomplishment here is how Affleck, who both stars in and directs Argo, manages to segue from Ocean's 11-style repartee to pulse-pounding tension and back again.
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| Original Score: 9/10
Affleck easily orchestrates this complex film with 120 speaking parts as it moves from inside-the-Beltway espionage thriller to inside Hollywood dark comedy to gripping international hostage drama, all without missing a step.
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| Original Score: 4/5
[Affleck's] ambition for the thriller has gone international, it's gone important, but, crucially, not self-important.
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| Original Score: 3/4
An impressive mix of serious suspense filmmaking and ironic, mood-lightening humor. And it has the added distinction of being mostly true, based on a declassified CIA operation.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
A tone-perfect hybrid of insider show-biz spoof and tense spy thriller.
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| Original Score: A
In the end, this is a story about outwitting rather than killing the enemy, making it a homage to actual intelligence and an example of the same.
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| Original Score: 5/5
An entertaining, real-life, race-the-clock thriller that nabs you at the start and never makes a wrong move.
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| Original Score: 5/5
It's an embodiment of the kind of quality adult film that really shouldn't be an endangered species, and a love letter from Affleck to the industry that made him, shunned him, and loves nothing more than to be loved.
Fact-based but politically cautious.
The propulsive hostage thriller "Argo," the third feature directed by Ben Affleck, just plain works.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
It re-creates the mood of an era, a nation's frustration and anger, all while rollicking along with a crackling adventure.
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| Original Score: 5/5
A lot of movies take us back to the late '70s/early '80s, but few have done it so forcefully and with so little application of kitsch.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
Argo is a triumph. It has tension, sincerity, mystery, artistic responsibility, entertainment value, technical expertise, a narrative arc and a thrilling respect for the tradition of how to tell a story with minimum frills and maximum impact.
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| Original Score: 4/4
"'Argo' is quite a satisfactory impossible mission indeed."
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| Original Score: 3.5/5
Affleck captures not just the way we looked and acted during this era, but vividly brings history to life.
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| Original Score: 4/4
Out in the audience, you never shake the feeling-partly intentional-that Argo itself is swaddled in a kind of phony ersatzness.
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| Original Score: 3/5
A marvel of cunning, an irresistible blend of cool realism and Hollywood hokum.
While steeped in the trends and filmmaking style of the decade, "Argo" still feels immediate and relevant. Affleck's best film yet is also one of the best films of the year.
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| Original Score: 4/4
Argo is never less than wildly entertaining, but a major part of its power is that it so ominously captures the kickoff to the world we're in now.
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| Original Score: A
Kudos to Ben Affleck, actor and director, for delivering a vital and thrilling political actioner.
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| Original Score: A
White-knuckle tense and less self-congratulatory than it sounds, Ben Affleck's unexpectedly comedic third feature has the vital elements to delight adult auds.
Argo is a crackerjack political thriller told with intelligence, great period detail and a surprising amount of nutty humor for a serious look at the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-81.
