Few films have angered me more than this entirely predictable, utterly facile and dreadfully formulaic piece of Hollywood excrement. The only advantage gained from wasting an evening witnessing it was a fuller appreciation of the systemic corruption within the media industry that threatens to award it several Oscars.

The faults are obvious and well documented. The events concerned are ridiculously exaggerated as the most exciting incident actually occurring was the provision of wrongly dated visas by the CIA who didn't appreciate that Iran had a different calendar to the West. Otherwise the whole operation was largely mundane. The main contribution by the CIA had been the provision of fake passports and visas whilst it was the Canadians who were most pivotal in the execution of the project. Naturally Hollywood did not wish to publicize this inconvenient truth about the matter.

But the film itself is equally mundane. Ben Affleck is arrogantly wooden and the hostages appear to be more cartoon stereotypes than actual people in that situation. All suspense is lost as we know from the outset what the outcome will be and to be frank I found it difficult to remain awake for the duration. It was just another round of backslapping pro-American hero worshiping masquerading as a historical thriller. Avoid at all costs.