The Movie opens by setting the back drop of history. A terrible POS Iranian warlord gives other countries, including the US, rights to oil in his country and then uses the money for his lavish lifestyle and persecutes his own population. Naturally the Iranians don't like him so much, or the dirty Americans that assisted with this rise to power. He flees, they revolt, storm the US Embassy, take 60 or so hostages, and 6 staff members escape through a back door and eventually find asylum with the Canadian ambassador. Apparently we still feel that we didn't give them enough credit in the film (or during the actual events), so we have since given them 2 hockey wins in the current Sochi Olympics. You're welcome. (Side note: In the movie Pacific Rim, Canada is the final gov't official to tell off the commander that he's lost the support for his Jaeger program, but I've already digressed too much). Naturally various branches of the US government get together WAY after specific officials already know that there are 6 staff in hiding in order to come up with a plan to get them out. Apparently they were just hoping this little crisis would work itself out; I mean, doesn't everything seem to work itself out in that part of the world? Yeah, that hurts a bit. So now we only have a few days to come up with a plan before the Iranians figure out they don't have enough hostages. What do you do? Have a meeting to waste more time and come up with ludicrous solutions. I'm not sure how far they stretch the truth of this story, but needless to say some of the options they mentioned to get these people out sounded more fictional than the fake sci-fi movie they ended up making to do the job. I felt like I was watching the scene in Armageddon where they're throwing out ideas to stop the meteor from hurtling into earth and one of them is to use a laser powered from the sun's rays. I really wish Billy Bob Thornton would have busted in, 'Come on guys! We need some realistic solutions here, we only have 3 days!'. Instead an apparently hungover and stressed out Ben Affleck comes to the rescue (as he may when playing Batman next year) when he gets the idea to make a fake sci-fi movie while watching Planet of the Apes and ignoring his son (why are you taking a break from your family again?). Okay, I've gone off the deep end a bit here so lets wrap it up. Argo is a seriously good movie with great performances by Ben, John Goodman, Alan Arkin (one of my personal favs), and the actors playing the feared for their life but lets pull together somehow and get it done embassy staff members. As far as crime/war drama thrillers go, this is a good one and I award it 6/7 Fox Tails for their effort. Wait, not 7/7? No, and here's why. It is a great movie, but it doesn't have much development of characters nor does it spur on conversation after the movie has ended. It does spur me to read learn more about the actual events, but outside of that I was just extremely entertained for 120 minutes.
To those in Minnesota and the rest of this great nation currently being tortured by the weather, I wish you a happy weekend and safe travels. I'm hitting up a beer and wine tasting event (booya) at a venue that also has the walls lined with arcade games. I may not leave, so I'll leave you with a few quotes from Parks and Rec that I heard this week.
'Whats a non-gay way to ask him to go camping'
'Fish is basically a vegetable'
God bless us, and God bless you Ron Swanson.
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