Welcome to my very first film review. Sleep easy Barry Norman.
In the wake of its Oscar win and many rave reviews, the Shah and I took ourselves off to see Argo the other night. Not for us the local chain cinema flea pit with its revolting pick 'n mix that a thousand snotty fingers have pawed and its vom-inducing nachos adorned with a slick of greasy yellow slime. Oh no - not for us the multi-screen behemoth with its tacky carpets, chavvy clientèle and the car park that saw a drive-by shooting not that long ago,- oho no m'lud. We took out a small extra mortgage and sallied forth to our local Everyman Cinema which is nowadays adorned with comfortable sofas and dinky little tables on which to rest your over-priced Chablis, darling.
But to the film. I have to admit that Ben Affleck with slightly long hair and a full beard is surprisingly gorj which was an added bonus as the rest of the cast were very convincingly attired in proper 70s over-sized spectacles, frizzy perms and what the Shah likes to call "fuck off collars". These are so named because they are so ludicrous you take one look at them and go ...you fill in the blanks.
I'm not going to re-hash the plot here, (yes I know I said it was a film review but whatever) save to say that the film concerns the fate of six American citizens who managed to slip away from the US Embassy in Tehran when it was stormed by militants and then had to be got out of Iran pdq. It also details the preposterous plot that was cooked up by Hollywood to effect that rescue.
I wasn't expecting to be enthralled but I was. I wasn't expecting it to be edge-of-the-seat gripping, but it was. Modern day footage was very cleverly inter-cut with newsreel of the time in pivotal scenes, such as enraged Iranian militants chanting and protesting outside the embassy building and it brought back many memories of those days and of how, being so young (ahem) I was pretty disinterested in all that stuff going on, on the other side of the world. It seems extraordinary to me now that I couldn't have cared less - but I guess that was then and this is now and I have a good many more years on the clock in 2013.
Most of all, I wasn't expecting the film to be laugh aloud funny but, surprisingly, it was - in many places. There has, of course, been a lot of online debate about its historical accuracy, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah - I'm not getting into that - I enjoyed it. The end. So, here's a trailer, featuring a good deal of the lovely Ben and to quote one of the running jokes in the film - Argo and see it!
In the wake of its Oscar win and many rave reviews, the Shah and I took ourselves off to see Argo the other night. Not for us the local chain cinema flea pit with its revolting pick 'n mix that a thousand snotty fingers have pawed and its vom-inducing nachos adorned with a slick of greasy yellow slime. Oh no - not for us the multi-screen behemoth with its tacky carpets, chavvy clientèle and the car park that saw a drive-by shooting not that long ago,- oho no m'lud. We took out a small extra mortgage and sallied forth to our local Everyman Cinema which is nowadays adorned with comfortable sofas and dinky little tables on which to rest your over-priced Chablis, darling.
But to the film. I have to admit that Ben Affleck with slightly long hair and a full beard is surprisingly gorj which was an added bonus as the rest of the cast were very convincingly attired in proper 70s over-sized spectacles, frizzy perms and what the Shah likes to call "fuck off collars". These are so named because they are so ludicrous you take one look at them and go ...you fill in the blanks.
I'm not going to re-hash the plot here, (yes I know I said it was a film review but whatever) save to say that the film concerns the fate of six American citizens who managed to slip away from the US Embassy in Tehran when it was stormed by militants and then had to be got out of Iran pdq. It also details the preposterous plot that was cooked up by Hollywood to effect that rescue.
I wasn't expecting to be enthralled but I was. I wasn't expecting it to be edge-of-the-seat gripping, but it was. Modern day footage was very cleverly inter-cut with newsreel of the time in pivotal scenes, such as enraged Iranian militants chanting and protesting outside the embassy building and it brought back many memories of those days and of how, being so young (ahem) I was pretty disinterested in all that stuff going on, on the other side of the world. It seems extraordinary to me now that I couldn't have cared less - but I guess that was then and this is now and I have a good many more years on the clock in 2013.
Most of all, I wasn't expecting the film to be laugh aloud funny but, surprisingly, it was - in many places. There has, of course, been a lot of online debate about its historical accuracy, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah - I'm not getting into that - I enjoyed it. The end. So, here's a trailer, featuring a good deal of the lovely Ben and to quote one of the running jokes in the film - Argo and see it!
