The great escape

Argo
DIRECTED BY: Ben Affleck
STARRING: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin
CERT: 15A

Argo kicks off with a voice-over summary of Iran’s recent political history, of the events that led to the Islamic revolution. A reminder that current events in the Middle East didn’t just fall from the tree and a nice way to set up the film.

It picks up in Tehran in 1979, when Iranian revolutionaries storm the US Embassy, taking more than 50 Americans hostage. This is the story we knew about, the 444-day hostage crisis that played out around the world and led, at least in part, to Jimmy Carter’s defeat to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 US election.

 

The story we didn’t know until 1997, when Bill Clinton declassified the information, involved six Americans who managed to escape the embassy and take refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. This is the one Argo is concerned with.

At CIA headquarters, the brass are knocking heads over how to get these people out of the country before the Iranians discover that several of the embassy staff are unaccounted for.
The agency’s top extractor, Tony Mendez (Affleck), comes up with the kind of wild plan that might just work, inspired by watching Planet of the Apes. That probably doesn’t happen too often to the boys in Langley.

Tony has a friend in Hollywood, a make-up artist named John Chambers (Goodman). The lads hook up with veteran producer Lester Siegel (Arkin) and together they develop a fake movie called Argo ­ a sci-fi thriller, a space opera borrowing not too subtly from Star Wars.

To look the part, they form a production company, get a script, storyboards and a big ad in Variety. They go so far as to hire the cast and have a full-costume read through.

That’s the easy bit. The tricky part is getting Tony into Iran to convert the six American houseguests into Canadian filmmakers, take them on a location scout in the city, then get them on a flight out of Tehran with their brand new fake identities just as the Iranians are finally getting a handle on who they’re looking for.

It’s a story so mad, you wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t true ­ or mostly true, with a sprinkle of the old creative licence. It’s almost inconceivable, too, that in this day and age, Ben Affleck has been allowed by a Hollywood studio to make a thriller without ten bazillion action scenes.

What he has instead is a fine script (by Chris Terrio), a sure hand as a director, an excellent feel for real suspense and a fine team of production designers that bring the era to vivid life.

He’s surrounded himself with a very fine cast, too, among them Bryan Cranston as his CIA boss, Victor Garber as the Canadian ambassador and the largely unknown actors who play the group in hiding. As the Hollywood team, Goodman and Arkin are in great form and bring a welcome sharp wit to the party.

If I had to complain, I’d say the soundtrack is a tad sparse, considering the excellent music that was being made in the day. Also, after stoutly resisting the Hollywood urges for the guts of two hours, Affleck can’t help but throw in an old action movie staple at the climax which otherwise is a brilliant scenario.

There’s talk of Oscars and all that stuff but I don’t think it’s genuinely classic material. It’s very good, though and well worth the watch.

Here Comes The Boom
DIRECTED BY: Frank Coraci
STARRING: Kevin James, Henry Winkler, Salma Hayek
CERT: 12A
You could say that Here Comes The Boom is Warrior without all the good stuff. You’d be mostly right but there’s not much point going down that road. These movies exist in parallel universes.
Kevin James is Scott Voss, a biology teacher at a Boston school, where the board is making cuts to the extracurricular program. Band class is for the chop, meaning veteran music teacher Marty (Winkler) will be out on his ear.

To raise the cash to save his buddy’s career, Scott takes to the mixed martial arts circuit, against all sane advice. But hey, he used to wrestle in school and besides, even the loser takes home more money than he makes in a week. Naturally, our man discovers that he has a habit of succeeding against the odds, that there’s a bit of old Rocky in his blood. Soon he’s competing for the big prize ­ just enough dough to save the day.

There’s no big surprises in the formula here and not an awful lot of sharp comedy but Kevin James is the kind of actor who can make you laugh, even when his films are rubbish, a chap who’s almost too likeable to criticise. He plays to form here and does his best to entertain. Speaking of which, fans of UFC will get a kick out of the cameos from several familiar faces.

It’s directed by Frank Coraci, who did great things with Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy, but misses that mark by a fair bit here. Sandler regular Henry Winkler does fine as the band teacher, but Salma Hayek must be wondering how it’s all come to this.