Sinister & Argo

Sinister:

I like Ethan Hawke, I thought Scott Derrickson's previous film The Exorcism of Emily Rose was a breath of fresh air, and I've been following writer C. Robert Cargill's reviews for a while now, so I figured I'd give this movie a chance despite it's terrible trailer.  Although the film is a little darker and a little scarier than you'd think, it's still an unoriginal cliche you've seen countless times.  The movie follows a true-crime writer whose last hit was a decade ago and just wants one last chance.  He moves into a new house - which just so happens to have been the scene of a violent crime - with his wife and two kids.  Mr. Hawke then finds a box of old Super 8 film reels in the attic, which depict all kinds of the heinous acts committed by the same lunatic.

My favorite parts of Sinister were the ultra-realistic and disturbing Super 8 films, along with a few scenes of Ethan Hawke acting the fuck out of a limited script, but I couldn't imagine that anyone leaving the theater will remember it the next day.  There is one stupid character decision after the other, and the potentially interesting idea of finding clues to an old murder is squandered by an unnecessarily supernatural plot.

Rating: C

Argo:

Ben Affleck's The Town showed that he has the chops as an actor/director, so I was definitely intrigued to see how he'd follow it up.  Argo is based on a true story, where a group of CIA agents were to evacuate a group of Americans out of Iran in the late 70's/early 80's, using the location-scouting of a fake Hollywood sci-fi picture as their passage inside.  While the film is very well directed, personally I found it to be kind of a slog.  Most of the run time is devoted to Ben Affleck walking and talking about his plan, instead of real action.  The film picks up towards the end, but by then I had sat through 1.5 hours of 'alright' scenes.  Fans of political thrillers may enjoy this, but this sort of thing just isn't my bag...baby.

Rating: C+