95% Argo

All Critics (211) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (201) | Rotten (10)

'Argo' is one of the best movies of the year.

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.

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.

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.

The film is a whopper of a tale, one designed for Oscar nominations, Best Picture and Best Director among them.

With a tension right out of the best of Hitchcock, Affleck directs Chris Terrio's masterful screenplay with a restraint that never overplays the comic elements or overstates the obvious -- and with a velocity that seldom allows you to catch a breath.

With Affleck's continued growth as a director, it makes you want to see what he will deliver next.

Affleck has paraded well beyond dramatic liberties into a thick confetti of parochial myth-making, and it's disconcerting to see how content he appears to be with trading fact for fiction.

Mel Brooks meets John Frankenheimer ... a strange blend of inside Hollywood comedy and docudrama. The parts don't always mesh, but they do often enough to assure Affleck another crowd-pleaser

This pulse-racing thriller, set in the aftermath of Iran's Islamic Revolution, grabs you by the throat.

For 100 minutes, 'Argo' is close to flawless.

Argo is among the worthiest spy thrillers to come out of Hollywood in years, and it puts to rest (at least for this reviewer) any doubts over Affleck's chops as a smart, shrewd director of consistently topnotch fare.

Argo will make you say "wow" not because of anything big and flashy but purely for its well-told story.

It's a reminder of what the movies can offer when they're at their best: an escape into another world and a pertinent look at our own.

As a director, Ben Affleck is getting into Alan Pakula territory.

Even when it embellishes certain details leading up to its climax, Affleck and his actors by that time have sold the audience on its authenticity. How appropriate.

I found it hard for me to get into at first, but the final act more than makes up for it. Ben Affleck sure has come a long way since his days with Kevin Smith.

It's exciting, it's funny, it's suspenseful. The ending is nail-biting.

This is a classy heist movie with a bizarre set-up; it's entertaining as well as thrilling.

A tense political thriller with a dash of Hollywood satire thrown in to sweeten the deal, this is a gripping crowd pleaser that is sure to take home some statuettes come Oscar season. Your move, Matt Damon.

The real Argo that's landing in cinemas now shouldn't be mistaken as anything other than a spellbinding, old-fashioned thriller. I've got sweaty palms and an elevated pulse to prove that it's one of the year's very best films.

A suspenseful, topical and surprisingly humorous film that's deserving of the Oscar buzz surrounding it.

The only real criticism, surprisingly, is Affleck. Perhaps the time has come to think about spending more time behind the camera rather than in front of it.

...incredibly entertaining, lucid crowd pleaser. I'm [annoyed] that people may hear the synopsis and go 'Oh, that's not my thing', because Argo is everyone's thing: it's one of the year's best films.

Its politics are subtle, its performances are good, and its script is amazing.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/argo_2012/

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