Ben Affleck continues to hone his craft as a masterful director while re-establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s leading men on the screen. After some misfires (Pearl Harbor, Daredevil) and downright flubs (Gigli, Surviving Christmas) during the early part of the decade, Affleck stepped to the other side of the camera for the first time and directed the critically acclaimed Gone Baby Gone. In 2010, he directed and starred in the stirring action-drama The Town. As great as both of those movies were, Affleck was not recognized for either with an Academy Award nomination. That will change this year as Argo is destined for Best Picture and Best Director Academy Award nominations.
Continue reading Argo (2012)
Category Archives: Ben Affleck
The Company Men (2010)
In August of 2010, I made a list of the movies I had to see before the end of the year after reading Entertainment Weekly’s Fall/Winter movie preview edition. I ranked 15 films in order. #1 was Ben Affleck’s The Town, which has turned out to be my favorite movie (as of 2011). #2 was Buried, which starred Ryan Reynolds. This movie, which I did not see in the theatre, was one of the biggest wastes of two hours of my life. And #3 was The Company Men, which starred 4 Academy Award winners. The release date of The Company Men kept getting pushed back further and further, and while its limited release date was in very late December, the vast majority didn’t have a chance to see it until 2011. By then, my list had changed based on the Oscar Buzz and the lukewarm reviews of The Company Men. I finally was able to check the movie out on Netflix. Based on the film I had seen since my initial list, The Company Men would have still made the top 15, but it would have been closer to the 12-15 range rather than the 1-3 range. To further digress into my poor list, Little Fockers was #4, Unstoppable #5, and The American #6. The movies I liked most were The Social Network (initially #7) and Blue Valentine (initially #8). The Fighter (initially #10), 127 Hours (initially #11), Love & Other Drugs (initially #13), as well as True Grit, Rabbit Hole, Black Swan, and The King’s Speech (both of which I did not even rank).