Who would have thought that Ben Affleck, once considered just the least interesting half of the Damon/Affleck duo, and the least interesting half of Bennifer(with Jennifer Lopez), would turn out to be one of the best and smartest directors we have working today? With the well-received Gone Baby Gone and The Town already under his belt, Affleck looks to have made it 3/3 with the hostage drama, Argo.
A combination period piece and action thriller, Argo is set during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis when the American Embassy was taken over during the Iranian Revolution. With a number of diplomats holed up inside, the CIA launched a crazy plan to extract them by claiming they were all part of a Hollywood film shoot. Seriously. The story is based on a brilliant Wired article, “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran", and believe me the true story is as wacky as it sounds. Somehow it all went off, but not without a few hitches.
The best part of the newly released trailer is Affleck's ability to blend the serious, life or death stakes with just a touch of the ridiculous. Affleck stars, with Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Kyle Chandler, Taylor Schilling, Scoot McNairy, Richard Kind, Michael Parks, and Chris Messina along for the ride. Clearly, Warner Brothers has Oscar aspirations for this one, and judging by this they may be on the right track. Argo hits theaters on October 12th....
