REVIEW: Argo

Ben Affleck is on a mission. A mission to prove he is the next Clint Eastwood.

After having starred in such classics as Gigli and Jersey Girl... I mean, Good Will Hunting and Pearl Habour, he has recently been out to prove that he can also direct. After the interesting Gone Baby Gone and the fast-paced The Town, Affleck is now back with the intriguing political thriller, Argo.

Argo is set in 1979 when the American Embassy in Iran is stormed by Iranian Revolutionaries, because they want their ex-leader returned to them who has been granted exile by the United States. During the attack on the Embassy, six Americans manage to escape and hide out thanks to the Canadian Embassy Leader, Ken Taylor (Victor Garber). With no where to turn to and the rest of the workers at the American Embassy being taken hostage, it falls down to Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) who has the idea to pose as a Canadian film crew on a location scout, before sneaking the American Embassy workers out of the country. It's a tall order and requires help from Producer, Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) and Make-Up Artist, John Chambers (John Goodman), as he is getting little help and support from the American Government.

First off, Argo is a well-made film, as Affleck proves once again that he can easily handle the camera from behind-the-scenes as well as acting in front of it. The film starts off at an immediate fast-pace, as it opens with the storming of the American Embassy and the escape of the six Americans, Bob Anders (Tate Donovan), Cora Lijek (Clea DuVall), Joe Stafford (Scoot McNairy), Lee Schatz (Rory Cochrane), Mark Lijeck (Christopher Denham) and Kathy Stafford (Kerry Biché). The threat from the Iranians is obvious and great as high flying arial shots show us the amount of Iranian Revolutionaries and how annoyed they are by the hiding of their ex-leader. Interestingly, the film also shows the dark side of the American leadership, as when they find out that six of their workers have escaped, they turn down the initial plans for their escape. However, I felt like this was an avenue that wasn't properly explored - it was easy for Affleck to show the Iranians in a bad light, but it would have made the film much more interesting and tense if his character, Mendez faced much more threat and disbelief from the American Government as well. I know the film is fact, as this may not have been factual, but hey... it's called artistic license!

Another strong point to the film is the cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto and production design by Sharon Seymour. The smoky interiors and the retro clothing and props all helped to set the mood and time period of the film without being too over-bearing. It was when the group of six undercover Americans and Mendez were creeping around the Iranian bazaar on a fake location scout, that cinematography and direction by Affleck really blended together so well - the dusty and bleak surroundings combined with the claustrophobic shot choices really helped amp up the tension to the maximum. In fact, most of the film's tension was really brought to the forefront of the story in the final act, when they were trying to escape Iran in the airport, which was all handled very well by Affleck and writer, Chris Terrio.

However, while Argo has a brilliant mixture of tension right at the beginning of the film and during the final act, it's surprisingly absent in the middle. There could have been some tense revelations into how the undercover American workers were hiding out in the Canadian Embassy (there was a slight glimmer of this when one of the women witnessed an execution right outside her window, but that was it) or even the conflicts that the American Government Officials were facing back at home (again, there was a glimmer of this when they were debating which plan to go with), but neither of them seemed to really go anywhere. I was ready to love this film, especially after Affleck's last outing, the brilliant The Town, but somehow it felt a little but underdeveloped - much like the crappy Sci-Fi flick they were blagging as their legitimate film script in the actual film.

However, the lack of tension during the middle of the film did allow for some much needed character development between Mendez, Siegel and Chambers as they planned their "fake hit". The finding of the worst film script, the meeting with the script agent to buy the script, the designing of the film poster and then the press release of the script read-through all helped secure these characters as a believable team and some biting jokes at the Hollywood film system! It's just a shame that the same amount of care wasn't given to the American Embassy workers stuck in Iran - it would have been worthwhile to devote some screen time to the group bonding together, as it would have helped amp the tension up even more when they were sneaking through the airport undercover at the end.

So, overall Argo is a brilliantly tense political thriller that is another step towards helping Ben Affleck prove he is the next generation of Clint Eastwood's, who can act and direct. While the film did feel like it lulled a little bit in the middle, the amazingly tense opening and finale more than made up for it. A complicated, political story well told...

**** / *****

REVIEW: Silent Hill: Revelation 3D

Films based on video games are rarely translated well. Horror films based on video games tend to do even worse.

Is this an opinion? Fact? It certainly seems more like the latter, as all we have to do is look at a film series like Resident Evil to see how silly the films can get. Having said that, the first Resident Evil was pretty decent, but not much like the games; It was the sequels that started to get really silly.

It's safe to say that the Silent Hill franchise seems to be going the same way as Resident Evil.

The film, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D follows Heather (Adelaide Clemens), who is soon revealed to be Sharon aka. the evil Alessa from the original Silent Hill film. She has since changed her name, something that's revealed she constantly does, along with her Father, Harry (Sean Bean) in order to try and hide from the evil clutches of the town, Silent Hill. Still with me? Well, that's as complex as the plot gets really, because what follows is a fairly simple search and find as Harry is taken capture in Silent Hill and it's up to Heather to try and find him before it's too late. She luckily has help from another new kid at her school, Vincent (Kit Harington)... but she actually has to end up helping him too (fat lot of good he is!) As much as Resident Evil (used to) rely on zombies, SH:R3D also relies on it's own set of recognisable characters from the games. There's Pyramid Head (with his oversized sword/knife), the blind nurses and the trapped townsfolk of Silent Hill (who according to the film series believe they are being held captured by the evil soul of Alessa.)

First off, I have to say that I'm not a massive fan of the game series. I never actually owned any of them, but I used to play them around my friends house when I was younger all the time. I remember especially being creeped out by the nurses in the hospital, so I was quite excited to see the nurses being featured in this film. It's a shame that my excitement was so short lived...

Also, this film has much more in common with the Resident Evil series than I first realised. Let me go about this in some kind of order. We first have to look at the main characters. In Resident Evil, Alice went from being a helpless "nobody" to an ass-kicking zombie machine (ever since the second film). In Silent Hill, Sharon was a young girl who was literally dependent on her Mother (she was held capture), whereas in SH:R3D, Heather aka. Sharon has now become the ass-kicking heroine that Alice has become. Albeit, Sharon isn't as cartoony as Alice, but all the way through this film she is shown to be much stronger and a hell of a lot more independent. It was good to see that relatively unknown Adelaide Clemens did a fairly decent job in carefully balancing the scared youthful girl against the strong independent woman well. It's just a shame that her supporting roles couldn't really help her out with such believable characters. In particular, Kit Harington was fairly weak as the love interest, Vincent and their relationship seemed particularly forced - it didn't help that the film felt rushed, so they didn't really have any time to blossom as a couple before Harington placed an awkward kiss on Clemens lips. Sean Bean is basically left to a cameo, much like the first film, and seemed like he was doing the filmmakers a favour by being in this one.

Next up is the use of the film's monsters. Much like zombies used to be the icons of the Resident Evil film franchise (it now seems to be the ass-kicking adventures of Alice that have taken over), the monsters of Silent Hill really are becoming the stars of the show. Just take a quick look at the film's poster and you can see that Pyramid Head is taking a position up at the forefront. Again, it's a shame that the film lets them down somewhat and in particular the writing of the film, because it just feels like it goes from one set piece to another while being tied together by the weak prospect of Heather finding her Father. What I mean by that is, one minute Heather is hiding from the mannequin monster (where a supporting character is killed off extremely quickly) and the next minute she is hiding from Pyramid Head and then she is in a room full of nurses. It felt like one of those Horror Mazes that open up during Halloween, except this time the film has gone for gore and being gross rather than being suspenseful.

Not looking good so far is it?

While we are on the topic of the film's monsters, SH:R3D also follows in the footsteps of Resident Evil: Apocalypse where it decides to throw a curveball and make it's main villain (Pyramid Head) a last minute hero to help the heroine. In RE:A it was the Nemesis that suddenly helped out Alice kill off Major Tom Cain, SH:R3D decides to make Pyramid Head help out poor Heather while she unties dear old Dad. Now, I wouldn't really have brought this up as a criticism, but in RE:A at least it was hinted at (the Nemesis being a mutated version of a former friend of Alice). In SH:R3D we are given nothing - not one little clue that Pyramid Head is going to help Heather. He just... does it. Which is also stupid, because it leaves Heather with absolutely nothing to do. For about 50% of the film's finale, she was literally sitting around and just watching what was happening. For all the time that I was being lead to believe that she was this ass-kicking heroine, she fades back into the background for the finale. Also, without giving anything away, the final battle scene is so stupid and over-the-top, it felt like I was watching a late night WWE wrestling fight with fantasy characters.

The final comparison to Resident Evil has to fall back to the film's title. Resident Evil started off using understandable subtitles (Apocalypse and Extinction) but then fell into the realms of "Why the hell are they using that?!" (Afterlife and Retribution). It seems that Resident Evil has used all the understanding subtitles, because I have no friggin' idea why Silent Hill used "Revelation" as it's subtitle for this sequel. At absolutely no point in the film is anything new revealed. Everything we are told, we already know.

Heather has an evil twin/sister/mother in the form of Alessa in Silent Hill? Yeah, we already knew that.
Heather's mother's soul is trapped in Silent Hill? Yeah, we already knew that.
The towns people believe that Silent Hill is under a deep rooted curse from Alessa? Yeah, we...

You get the picture.

The only remotely small thing that was revealed is that there is a small cult of people in Silent Hill who have been trying to get Heather back, because they believe she is the key to stopping Alessa. But it's not enough; It's a throwaway moment that isn't really built upon properly (mainly because of the weak characters and rushed plot). I remember watching the first film and having so many questions raised by what I was seeing that I was thinking about it for hours afterwards. SH:R3D is such a straight forward schlocky B-Movie horror film that I literally forgot about what I had just watched by the time I got home.

So, SH:R3D is pretty much a unnecessary extension of the first Silent Hill film. While it does have nice nods to the game series, a plot that doesn't waste time in getting to the action and some recognisable monsters, it just fails to entertain on the most basic of levels. I just wish the filmmakers would of had more guts to add some originality to their film rather than just riding on the coattails of the previous one.

* / *****