OT: Argo

[nelsonmuntz]

Good movie, not great.

Lots of liberties with reality.

I knew the chase on the airstrip was BS, but I was disappointed that the airport exchange between the escapee and the Revolutionary Guard over the story board was not real. That was the best scene of the movie.

Also, Affleck is better as a supporting actor than he is as a lead.

 

[vtcwbuff]

Lots of criticism from our Canadian friends. In reality they were the major player and the movie reduced them to a bit part.

 

[ZooCougar]

Lots of criticism from our Canadian friends. In reality they were the major player and the movie reduced them to a bit part.

That's the case in most cases that involve the Canadians. 51st State.

 

[ZooCougar]

Sorry, Argo was not best picture. Not even close.

 

[UConn990411]

Sorry, Argo was not best picture. Not even close.

I love when people make definitive statements about completely subjective topics.

Argo was very, very good, but it didn't stand out like most Best Picture films. The same can be said about Lincoln, Django (my personal choice for Best Picture), Amour, Zero Dark Thirty, Silver Linings Playbook and every other film that was up for the award.

In any event, Argo was significantly better than The Artist - still can't believe that movie won Best Picture.

 

[Rondogg]

I watched all of the best Pic nominees. My wife and I finished the list on Sunday at 3pm watching Beasts of the Southern Wild. It ended up being our favorite. A 6 year old with no acting experience had my wife crying (not me heh heh) by the last 20 minutes of the movie. I have no idea how they made that movie.

 

[meyers7]

I watched all of the best Pic nominees. My wife and I finished the list on Sunday at 3pm watching Beasts of the Southern Wild. It ended up being our favorite. A 6 year old with no acting experience had my wife crying (not me heh heh) by the last 20 minutes of the movie.

Saw that movie, heard it was supposed to be brilliant. Didn't find it all that good. Decent I suppose. Not decent enough to watch again though. Certainly nothing close to crying about in it. Little girl did a nice job though. Considering her age and experience.

I have no idea how they made that movie.

I have no idea why they made that movie. Really didn't seem to make any sense.

 

[meyers7]

I love when people make definitive statements about completely subjective topics.

In any event, Argo was significantly better than The Artist

Some people just crack me up.

 

[zls44]

I liked Argo a lot, but in all honesty, I thought Silver Linings Playbook was the best of the ones I've seen. I'm as shocked to believe that as you think. But it was just excellent. Thought this year was a huge improvement over last year, lots of really really good movies (Argo, Django, Zero Dark, Skyfall, Lincoln, SLP were all fantastic). I have no issues with any year that can produce six as good as that. I can't remember a year that solid since the mid-90s.

Guys, rent Silver Linings Playbook. The missus will appreciate it. It's actually not nearly as chick-flicky as you think, there's minimal dancing, and there's lots of Jennifer Lawrence in yoga pants which is altogether fantastic.

I say again: Jennifer Lawrence, yoga pants.

 

[meyers7]

I liked Argo a lot, but in all honesty, I thought Silver Linings Playbook was the best of the ones I've seen. I'm as shocked to believe that as you think. But it was just excellent. Thought this year was a huge improvement over last year, lots of really really good movies (Argo, Django, Zero Dark, Skyfall, Lincoln, SLP were all fantastic). I have no issues with any year that can produce six as good as that. I can't remember a year that solid since the mid-90s.

Guys, rent Silver Linings Playbook. The missus will appreciate it. It's actually not nearly as chick-flicky as you think, there's minimal dancing, and there's lots of Jennifer Lawrence in yoga pants which is altogether fantastic.

I say again: Jennifer Lawrence, yoga pants.

Haven't seen all of them but there were quite a few I wanted to see, which is unusual. Pretty good year. Lincoln was probably the best I've seen this year. Flight was second (though Denzel was a shoe-in for an Oscar....until I saw Day-Lewis in Lincoln).

Jennifer Lawrence seemed awfully skinny to me last night. But I'll watch Silver Linings at some point anyway.

 

[UConn990411]

Some people just crack me up.

Haha I had a feeling someone would call me out for that. And deservedly so.

 

[meyers7]

Haha I had a feeling someone would call me out for that. And deservedly so.

Been there done that myself.

 

[Fishy]

It has to be a sign of having an eight-year old....

I can honestly say that I did not see so much as one of the Best Picture nominees, but I saw all five nominees for Best Animated Picture.

Outside of those, I think my wife and I snuck off only twice - we saw Moonrise Kingdom (loved it) and This is 40 (freaking hated it).

 

[ZooCougar]

I love when people make definitive statements about completely subjective topics.

Argo was very, very good, but it didn't stand out like most Best Picture films. The same can be said about Lincoln, Django (my personal choice for Best Picture), Amour, Zero Dark Thirty, Silver Linings Playbook and every other film that was up for the award.

In any event, Argo was significantly better than The Artist - still can't believe that movie won Best Picture.

Oh okay. But it really wasn't as good as Zero Dark Thirty, Django, Silver Linings etc... It was good, but not that good.

I think the Academy was just worried about being PC.

 

[ZooCougar]

It has to be a sign of having an eight-year old....

I can honestly say that I did not see so much as one of the Best Picture nominees, but I saw all five nominees for Best Animated Picture.

Outside of those, I think my wife and I snuck off only twice - we saw Moonrise Kingdom (loved it) and This is 40 (freaking hated it).

I am a sucker for anything made by Wes Anderson.

 

[ZooCougar]

I liked Argo a lot, but in all honesty, I thought Silver Linings Playbook was the best of the ones I've seen. I'm as shocked to believe that as you think. But it was just excellent. Thought this year was a huge improvement over last year, lots of really really good movies (Argo, Django, Zero Dark, Skyfall, Lincoln, SLP were all fantastic). I have no issues with any year that can produce six as good as that. I can't remember a year that solid since the mid-90s.

Guys, rent Silver Linings Playbook. The missus will appreciate it. It's actually not nearly as chick-flicky as you think, there's minimal dancing, and there's lots of Jennifer Lawrence in yoga pants which is altogether fantastic.

I say again: Jennifer Lawrence, yoga pants.

I hope the person who invented yoga pants is a gazillionaire.

 

[zls44]

Haven't seen all of them but there were quite a few I wanted to see, which is unusual. Pretty good year. Lincoln was probably the best I've seen this year. Flight was second (though Denzel was a shoe-in for an Oscar....until I saw Day-Lewis in Lincoln).

Jennifer Lawrence seemed awfully skinny to me last night. But I'll watch Silver Linings at some point anyway.

1. She's actually a healthy size, not some waif. At least in the movie. Very down-to-Earth character in a down-to-Earth role. Everyone in that movie will remind you of somebody. Especially DeNiro, if you are a hardcore sports fan. There's about fifty posters he reminded me of.

***FLIGHT SPOILER ALERT***

2. Denzel was solid, but it says a lot about Flight that the clip they showed of his performance was THE BIG PAYOFF AT THE END OF THE MOVIE. I was shocked they did that. Everything after the hospital seemed like different ways of saying "this guy is a total addict". Liked the movie, but I thought it ran out of steam.

 

[zls44]

It has to be a sign of having an eight-year old....

I can honestly say that I did not see so much as one of the Best Picture nominees, but I saw all five nominees for Best Animated Picture.

Outside of those, I think my wife and I snuck off only twice - we saw Moonrise Kingdom (loved it) and This is 40 (freaking hated it).

Argo, Skyfall (basically a Best Picture nominee) and Flight are available on DVD/Blu-Ray. I'd recommend them in that order.

Really liked the entire BP crop. Can't always say that- 2011 was a nightmare, the only one that I could stand, Moneyball, is available for free streaming through the Xfinity app. Talk about a low bar to clear...that's the bottom of the barrel for distribution.

This years' are all worth your time if you can get the kid in bed.

 

[meyers7]

1. She's actually a healthy size, not some waif.

Maybe. I haven't seen her in the movie. She just looked waifish to me from the what I saw of her on the red carpet, stage. But then I do like big butts and I cannot lie.

 

[meyers7]

Really liked the entire BP crop. Can't always say that- 2011 was a nightmare, the only one that I could stand, Moneyball, is available for free streaming through the Xfinity app. Talk about a low bar to clear...that's the bottom of the barrel for distribution.

I liked Moneyball from last year. Not a great movie, but pretty good. But then I remember watching Billy Beane play for the Tidewater Tides way back when he was coming up. (along with Lenny Dykstra and Kevin Mitchell - those where the ones who stood out that I can remember) So it had some sentimentality for me.

Saw Descendents which I really liked. Thought, out of the BP nominees, The Help should have won. Really liked it. Saw War Horse (ok for a Disney film) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (very disappointing). The rest didn't interest me enough to even watch. And it's 2011, I don't want (or need) to see a silent film.

 

[ZooCougar]

I didn't think Skyfall was as good as hyped. It felt mo like Die Hard in London. Javier Bardem was decent though.

Argo, Skyfall (basically a Best Picture nominee) and Flight are available on DVD/Blu-Ray. I'd recommend them in that order.

Really liked the entire BP crop. Can't always say that- 2011 was a nightmare, the only one that I could stand, Moneyball, is available for free streaming through the Xfinity app. Talk about a low bar to clear...that's the bottom of the barrel for distribution.

This years' are all worth your time if you can get the kid in bed.

 

[ZooCougar]

Really want to see Flight.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Good movie, not great.

Lots of liberties with reality.

I knew the chase on the airstrip was BS, but I was disappointed that the airport exchange between the escapee and the Revolutionary Guard over the story board was not real. That was the best scene of the movie.

I agree on the over hollywood-ization of what is already an absolutely unbelievable story. I really would have liked to see what Argo would have been like done as close to reality as possible. Make it more of an intellectual caper ala the coming up with the idea part in the beginning expanding to negotiating with Canadiens, working the airport to discover holes/best times to go through, developing Canadian accents (and while you are there give the hideouts characters a little more depth). I enjoyed the movie and it was good, but not 100% tight like say Unforgiven or Slumdog Millionaire.

Semi-SPOILER ALERT...
To me though the best scene was Arkin buying the script, those parts were great. I give Argo - A+ for farce/hollywood parts (PS why it won, Hollywood loved saying why its screwed up yet wonderful), B for the CIA parts (was headed for an A until they threw the BS holdup spin at end - another absolutely unnecessary deviation from the truth) an A for the historical parts (real life footage was great, and the takeover was spot on and you could tell they had a blast early with 70's music, hair, clothes and cars) and an A- for the depiction of the hideouts themselves (all pretty true, would have liked it if they picked just one character to get really deep).

 

[Waquoit]

I liked Argo a lot, but in all honesty, I thought Silver Linings Playbook was the best of the ones I've seen.

To me, SLP was nice rom-com, period. It played way too loose with mental illness as a plot device. Fall in love at the end and your illness is cured, just like that. As if. And the mental illness thread is why it was being sold as more serious than your standard chickflick. The football betting subplot and the final dance sequence was less believable than the end of Argo, imo. Life of Pi should have won.

 

[cohenzone]

We saw Lincoln and Argo on the same day. I really liked both for different reasons. Given that the outcome was known in both cases, they did a great job of holding interest even though the end of Argo was totally Hollywoodized. Saw Beast of the Southern Wild and thought it too far out there for my taste even though the acting was quite good. Of the movies I saw that weren't nominated for Best, but had actors up in categories, Flight and The Master, I liked Flight and Washington was his usual great self. I didn't like the Master at all even though the acting was very good. Kind of like The American Beauty for me. Great acting but I couldn't identify with a single character and wanted them all to just go away. I still would like to see Zero Dark Thirty to see which of the takes on the movie I agree with.