One Minute Movie Review: Argo

Oscar Winning Ben Affleck invites us to his own envisioning of the real life events of 1979 during the Iran Hostage crisis.  Like most stories based in reality but allowing creative and dramatic liberties, the key challenge is to make something historical and documented into a suspenseful and compelling product for the audience without losing the majority of it's accuracy.  Affleck succeeds, for the most part, however, the only real edge of your seat action occurs in the last half hour of the film.  The preceding journey is engaging, but a bit dry as the actor's performances are genuine but lackluster.  In fact, their portrayals are so two dimensional that they never make a true connection with the viewer therefore, diluting the potency of the total story.   Affleck almost floats through his role, playing it entirely too casual for what was required.  The script is solid but lessened by the excessive amount of F Bombs that laden the picture to a point of near ridiculousness.   Overall, a good flick, just not a great one, but a stark reminder of a truly tragic and uncertain time in our past.  3 out of 5 Kernels: of the current highly populated herd of docudramas out there, this one is the weakest of the pack.