Sunday, January 20, 2013

Making movies to save lives













Even though I already saw this earlier last year I'll put a review of it here as it's a strong contender on the Oscars and I plan on giving my opinion on all of the nominees. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Ben Affleck is a bad actor but he's a very good director. It's just a shame he can't stay behind the camera as this movie would have been quite a bit better with some other actor in the lead. That being said it's not completely Affleck's performance that hinders this movie, it's partly the script as well. Most of the rescuees are left with very little to nothing to say and even though Affleck does the right thing as a director and gives them time, they are still left rather meaningless. Another proof that he actually is a good director, but also a proof that the script wasn't that great as it leaves the people the viewer should care for in the shadows. But I'm getting ahead of things here.

So the movie tells a great little story about a crazy CIA operation to get six American diplomats out of Iran in middle of a revolution when Americans are the prey of the day. The plan is to make a fake movie, stage a location scout tour to Iran and escort the diplomats out of there. The story was actually great, highly interesting and surprisingly fun as well. I really loved the little nods towards the 70's sci-fi movies and the Hollywood of that time. I also liked the look of the movie, it really looked like it was from the late 70's or early 80's and the somewhat corny camera moves supported the illusion perfectly. Another thing I liked was the soundtrack, the whole movie was highly entertaining music wise. The acting was rather good as well, apart from Affleck's one expression performance, though no one really stood out of the crowd. Maybe Alan Arkin if I had to name someone, he was quite great as this washed out producer who didn't take crap from anyone. With a better script and a better lead actor this story would have been close to brilliant, now it's "just" good.
75%

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