When Ben Affleck came up with the idea to direct this movie he thought this way: "OK, I'll never gonna get my Oscar for best actor but if I direct movie that rises patriotism it's gonna happen for sure. American movie academy likes that. Remember Kathryn Bigelow and "The Hurt Locker". It doesn't really matter anything else." And it is what is going to be. This movie has so many flaws that makes me think where to start. The storyline is one-sided. One side is a good one and wants to save fugitives from certain death and second side is a bad one and wants to kill them as being spies. Totally cliché. The plot is shallow, barren, predictable and after while becomes boring. I don't think that the events described in the movie really happened this way and are authentic. Many countries protested about it (Iran, Great Britain, New Zeland and even Canada) so the storyline is very disputable. Acting was in the background cause the purpose of the movie was patriotic. Ben Affleck acting skills are weak as always. Alan Arkin and John Goodman are great actors as always but hadn't chance to show more themselves cause the script is barren. Directing is disputable and you may not like it. If you expected to see a good and realistic political drama watch "Syriana". This movie is not what you were expected to be. I never liked one-sided stories.