Argo

Ben Affleck has struck gold. Producing, directing, and starring in this thriller that, last weekend, four weeks out, was the highest grossing movie of the past weekend. And for good reason.

We were among the many who went to see Argo last weekend. The movie is true edge of your seat fare. The challenge of a historical movie, one in which we know the ending, is to create real drama. After all we know as we watch the movie that the plane carrying those being rescued will get in the air, they will evade the Iranians, and the plan to get them out will work.

Still, with these challenges, Affleck makes it work and work beyond compare.

The movie tells the story of six American embassy workers who escape from the takeover of the embassy by the Iranian protestors. Hidden by the Canadian embassy for a time what becomes clear is that they need to be brought out of the country before the Iranians discover their presence. Affleck as CIA agent Tony Mendez comes up with a plan, a crazy plan, to create a fake movie to provide cover for getting those embassy workers out of the country.

Casting in the movie is brilliant. Alan Arkin and John Goodman play the Hollywood types brought in to help create the supposed movie. Arkin is perfect in his role but truly needing to be recognized is Goodman. Is there anyone acting today that is better at these character rolls than John Goodman. Familiar faces abound in the movie, most however are not those one can put a name to but we know that we know them. Kyle Chandler of Friday Night Lights fame makes an appearance as Hodding Carter.

The movie in all respects however is all about Affleck. He dominates this movie and it is a good thing. His character is an agent who takes his job seriously and has a sense of responsibility toward each and every person he is to help.

As we watch a movie we often wonder about how it will age, this is a movie that could easily become a classic. A fantastic movie.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

This movie based on the book of the same name was released in late December, 2011 and nominated for Best Picture. This was a movie we watched on streaming one night in between videos being sent to us. I was not expecting much. I have to admit that quite a few years ago I had attempted the book but not completed it. At the time it just did not seem to be a well thought out book.

The reviews I had read for the movie were not that strong either. I am happy to report however that I might have been right about the book, but the movie adaption was actually quite good with some affecting performances.

Oskar Schell is a young boy living in New York City on September, 11, 2011. As the terrible events of that morning unfold Oskar's school is let out early and as he arrives home to an empty apartment the phone rings. He hears his father's voice on the machine as he does not pick up. He is scared. He knows vaguely that something is happening but as he hears the tremble in his father's voice and then turns on the television he sees the towers come down just a his father's phone call is cut off.

We meet Oskar's father in flashbacks. Played by Tom Hanks, his father is a German American who devises maps and puzzles for Oskar to have to solve. Both as a way to share something and as a not obvious way for Oskar to overcome his shyness it is something they share.

How Oskar deals with his father's death, how his Mother ( Sandra Bulluck) tries to help him, and the incredible last puzzle that Oskar's Dad sends him on from beyond the grave leads to the major plot point of the movie.

Some reviews said that the boy Oskar, played by Thomas Horn, is not a likable character. He is a challenging character, he also is a young boy whose father was ripped away from him on live television. I think expecting a cuddly warm character might be a little too much.

The supporting cast in this movie is very strong. Max Von Sydow, Viola Davis, and the incredible John Goodman. Every character Goodman takes, big or small becomes a highlight of a movie, he is, one of the great character actors of his generation, one who is amazingly underrated. He has come a far distance from Dan Connor on Roseanne.

I myself do not think this is a great movie, it is certainly not Oscar worthy. It was however a good movie, and it told what could have been a fairly conventional story with a very unconventional angle. With movies in general following so much cookie cutter formula these days the directors who attempt to go off the beaten path should be acknowledged as well as the actors and actresses who take on less certain, less sure thing roles. Well worth watching.

The Big Lebowski

I had heard so much about this movie. Festivals are dedicated to it. It is a real cult classic. The movie is enjoyable and watching it one can tell which lines are inevitably repeated by cultists like words from a higher power. Jeff Bridges as " The Dude" is wonderful and John Goodman plays the buffoon sidekick to the hilt. Somehow The Dude is caught in a caper involving kidnap, mistaken identity and embezzlement. The movie is much better than one might think it would be in reading a synopsis. Bridges is perfect in his role, the script is well done and I enjoyed this movie. It is not Anchorman but like that movie provides many lines which hordes of men of a certain age will quote endlessly. My wife would roll her eyes and call this another one of those movies that is not as good as I think but it was good...I give it a 7. It is not high brow but it does not claim to be. It does not need to be, it is the Big Lebowski


Rating: 7