95% Argo

All Critics (218) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (207) | Rotten (11)

'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.

Ben Affleck proves that his transition from blockbuster poster boy to serious dramatic director is now complete...The film's portrayal of America as a superpower under siege serves as a timely comment on the nation's place in the world today.

While I'm not buying into the early Oscar hype for 'Argo,' it is a gripping and exciting story that is mostly true and mostly authentic.

Hold on tight and revel in the brilliance of a riveting film that's enthralling in execution and subtext.

Affleck has crafted a truly old school suspense movie that is as involving as any film I've seen this year.

Given today's headline news from the Middle East, it seems not only frighteningly, jarringly real, but like it could easily have happened last week.

There is an intelligent, funny film waiting to come out of this story; it will have to keep waiting.

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.

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

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