I retract all previous annoyed sentiments instilled in me by yet another actor turned director casting themselves as the lead in their own film. It still bugs me that Angelina Jolie felt the need to direct a film, however; but to be fair I did not see her directorial debut.
I can't rightly assume what Ben Affleck is like in reality, but I do give him credit for having a marriage which is still going strong and has lasted more than the Hollywood average of 6 months. Even more shocking is that his marriage to Jennifer Garner is his first. That boosts his likeability substantially, as did his film Argo. Going into the theater with low expectations may have helped. Seeing the trailer for the film about 60 times eventually wore down my desire to see it. After having seen it so many times, I easily memorized a good deal of the comedic one-liners sprinkled throughout the dialogue.
Argo is based, arguably rather loosely, on the Iran hostage crisis of 1979. Irate Iranians stormed the U.S. consulate and held all inside hostage until the U.S. government met their demands and returned a hated prior leader to them to be hanged. Six U.S. officials escaped to the Canadian ambassador's house where they went into hiding in hopes that someone would come to their rescue. Cue Ben Affleck and the CIA! Initally, I thought "wow, this is so timely, what with Iran's prominence in today's news." Almost immediately after that thought, the more logical thought that it would likely piss off all Iranians took its place. I hope for Ben Affleck's sake that he is not placed at the top of any hit lists.
I say that the film is "loosely based" on fact because many events were injected with an element of timliness to augment suspense and were clearly fabricated. People answering crucial phone calls on the last ring kind of thing. The suspense certainly kept me glued to the edge of my seat, however, so it obviously worked. Not for a minute of the running time did boredom overtake me. Other emotions did, however; I felt the terror of the hostages along with their other spectrum of emotions from hope to hopelessness and joy to fear. Of course, it is impossible to accurately feel as someone in that situation would unless you were in a similar one yourself, but Affleck successfully gave his audience a taste of such emotions.
Also, Affleck did not try to involve any unrealistic love interests or sex scenes just for kicks so I give him props for that.
I can't rightly assume what Ben Affleck is like in reality, but I do give him credit for having a marriage which is still going strong and has lasted more than the Hollywood average of 6 months. Even more shocking is that his marriage to Jennifer Garner is his first. That boosts his likeability substantially, as did his film Argo. Going into the theater with low expectations may have helped. Seeing the trailer for the film about 60 times eventually wore down my desire to see it. After having seen it so many times, I easily memorized a good deal of the comedic one-liners sprinkled throughout the dialogue.
Argo is based, arguably rather loosely, on the Iran hostage crisis of 1979. Irate Iranians stormed the U.S. consulate and held all inside hostage until the U.S. government met their demands and returned a hated prior leader to them to be hanged. Six U.S. officials escaped to the Canadian ambassador's house where they went into hiding in hopes that someone would come to their rescue. Cue Ben Affleck and the CIA! Initally, I thought "wow, this is so timely, what with Iran's prominence in today's news." Almost immediately after that thought, the more logical thought that it would likely piss off all Iranians took its place. I hope for Ben Affleck's sake that he is not placed at the top of any hit lists.
I say that the film is "loosely based" on fact because many events were injected with an element of timliness to augment suspense and were clearly fabricated. People answering crucial phone calls on the last ring kind of thing. The suspense certainly kept me glued to the edge of my seat, however, so it obviously worked. Not for a minute of the running time did boredom overtake me. Other emotions did, however; I felt the terror of the hostages along with their other spectrum of emotions from hope to hopelessness and joy to fear. Of course, it is impossible to accurately feel as someone in that situation would unless you were in a similar one yourself, but Affleck successfully gave his audience a taste of such emotions.
Also, Affleck did not try to involve any unrealistic love interests or sex scenes just for kicks so I give him props for that.
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