Argo review

Seen at a pre-release screening in Los Angeles:

If The Town didn’t sell Ben Affleck as a more than capable director, this movie surely will. Argo‘s current IMDb rating would make this the best of his three directorial pictures–hell, a top 50 film, though I wouldn’t go that far–and that’s no shabby feat considering his first two are at 7.8 and 7.6. All the Oscar talks for Best Picture are valid.

Affleck managed to adapt a huge real-life story in the Iran Hostage Crisis into a cinematic masterpiece, capturing perfectly the feel and look of 1980, the tension and chaos in Iran and in the great escape and the funny and cool Hollywood aspects of making a fake movie studio shown by Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) and John Goodman (Roseanne, The Artist), which shifts a lot of heaviness and tension away from the grave situation throughout the movie.

Well-acted, a great story and an ending that will keep your butt cheeks clenched, Argo delivers as a satisfying biopic with the actors’ resemblance similar to those of the hostages.

Affleck turned down directorial duties for the Superman reboot, Man of Steel, a $175 million movie set to come out in June of 2013. Yes, he’s that legit.

Argo opened in theaters on Friday.

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

IMDb rating: 8.4
What it should be: 7.9

Recommend

In another supplement to my pizza posts, I checked out Vito’s Pizza under high recommendation from a friend. I ordered two slices–Pizza Margherita and The Garibaldi, meatballs, tomatoes and jalapenos–which came out to over $8 – a huge difference when I could get fresher pizza for $5.

Location

One, in Los Angeles.

Prices

Regular slice – $2.50, w/ Pepperoni – $3.00, 18″ Cheese – $16.50, 18″ 1 Topping – $19

The most expensive slices and pies of the five places, a big deal when you factor in that their slices aren’t made to order.

Rating

3 stars out of 5

Though tasty, the freshness simply wasn’t there due to the lack of made to order pizza, and you can’t replicate that with any type of re-heating. Catch them during dinner time or catch ’em later. Closes at 11p.

BJ