I have not posted as often to my blog as I would have liked to. I'm so busy with grad school, sometimes I just feel that my eyes will pop out. However, every once in a great while I do get to go and see a film in a theater and hopefully it is a good one. This past month, I've had the great experience of seeing two films that I really enjoyed. ARGO is a great film directed by Ben Affleck. The movie is based loosely on former Central Intelligence Agency operative Tony Mendez's historical account of the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The film stars Affleck as Mendez with Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman The story of the same rescue was also told in the 1981 television movie Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper. Besides just being an "on the edge of your seat" thrilling movie, what was awesome about the film, and what really appealed to me when I consider my limited experience in making film, is the way the transition from the grainy vintage film clips used in the movie and the actual film were so smooth. Either they had technically figured out the exact ISO to shoot the digital footage to mimic the vintage footage, or they had done some serious technical work to the digital footage. I highly recommend the film. The other film that I had the benefit of seeing in the theater was the new movie "Cloud Atlas" The film is based the 2004 novel Cloud Atlas, by British author David Mitchell. It consists of six nested stories that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. It's truly epic! The Cloud Atlas cast includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, Zhou Xun, Keith David, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant. This film is long, almost 3 hours, it jumps from time era to time era as well as film genre to film genre. It's visually incredible and the cinematography blew me away. I loved most of the actors that each played various roles in the movie. I wasn't such a big fan of the make-up. At times it seemed fake, and I really think they should have cast someone besides Tom Hanks in the leading Role. I know, I know... he is a two time Oscar winner. Who cares? He wasn't all that great in some of the roles. He is a great actor. But, he really isn't all that versatile.