96% Argo

All Critics (204) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (195) | Rotten (9)

'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.

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.

There's "creating an intense, claustrophobic situation in a foreign locale" and there's "inciting unquestioning fear of 'the other'," and Argo pulls off the former far more often than it accidentally achieves the latter.

An ingeniously conceived thriller that's almost as much about our collective love of cinema as it is a tricky international incident.

Suspenseful movie based on a true incident; Ben Affleck's stock rises as an actor and director.

It not only confirms Affleck as one of the few A-listers to have made a credible transition to behind the camera, but that he's one of the most exciting mainstream directors around, full stop.

Affleck's seamless melding of intense thrills in Tehran and biting humour in California makes for a wholly satisfying movie.

The use of dramatic licence in the finale is too obvious but aside, Argo is a solid dramatic thriller that is informative, entertaining and gripping.

The film has heart and brains as well as balls, the screenplay delivering a clear and strong story without sacrificing either political or personal context

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

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