ARGO (Rated R)

Based on real events, “Argo” is a dramatic thriller that chronicles the life-or-death covert rescue operation of six Americans trapped in Tehran after the fall of the Shah.

On Nov. 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution that installed Ayatollah Khomeini in power grew intense, militants stormed the U.S. Embassy, taking 52 Americans hostage. Wow, talk about shades of recent terrorist activity against Americans in Libya; this movie is topical.

Those old enough to be familiar with the Jimmy Carter years will certainly remember this day of infamy, and the long, slow ordeal that ensued for well over a year afterwards.

What people are most likely to recollect, aside from the horror of an ongoing hostage saga, is the failed rescue attempt made by Army helicopters that crashed in the Iranian desert.

Much less well-known is how six Americans at the Embassy managed, in the midst of turmoil and chaos, to slip away and eventually find refuge in the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber).

The presence of the Americans at the Canadian official diplomatic residence posed great danger for the guests as well as the host government. The insane militants, if not the brutal Iranian regime, would likely execute all of them as spies.

From the very moment the U.S. compound is under assault, the tension is palpable and frightening. Embassy staff scurries to shred sensitive documents, even as they are petrified for their own safety.

Back home in Washington, CIA officials ponder how to save the stranded six house guests. Enter CIA agent Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), an expert at extricating sensitive people from the world’s hot spots, including Iran.

Needing approval from his direct superior, Jack O’Donnell (Bryan Cranston), Mendez starts kicking around ideas for extraction, quickly dismissing impractical schemes like having everyone ride a bike 400 miles to the border.

Having worked with Hollywood makeup artist John Chambers (John Goodman) on other CIA missions, Mendez hits upon the idea of fabricating the cover story of a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a tacky sci-fi film.

To make the idea work, Mendez recruits veteran producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to produce a fake movie that Siegel claims will have “to be a fake hit.”

Though the Siegel character is a composite of several Hollywood producers and moguls, Arkin brings to the role an outrageously funny perspective on the art of staging the cheesiest conceivable film.

The ruse won’t fly unless Mendez and his Hollywood buddies create a believable backstory for the bogus film production. They find a script for a film with the titular name of “Argo” and put together a production team.

The producers go so far as to design posters, stage table readings, take out ads in the trade papers and hold a big press conference to launch the film production.

Armed with a new identity as a Canadian film producer, Mendez obtains a visa and flies into Tehran to join his “film crew” – the six Americans in hiding.

With little time to enact his plan, Mendez has to coach the Americans in the art of impersonating key personnel of a film crew convincingly enough to get past the Revolutionary Guards handling security at the airport.

Working with the American government workers is not an easy task. They are naturally dubious about a mission that sounds too fanciful and off-the-wall. One or two are almost hostile about the rescue attempt, even after the Canadian government gives them official passports.

“Argo” also deftly recreates the tension and simmering hostilities that infuse the ongoing street demonstrations by crazed militants. The fear of exposure at any moment is a tangible reality for all concerned.

When things get too stressful and tense in Iran, the film wisely cuts away to scenes in Washington and Hollywood, where the frantic activity of secret agents and film moguls brings much needed comic relief.

You have to hand it to Ben Affleck for doing great work in his dual role of focal actor in the grand scheme and directing the entire piece of solid work.

Since “Argo” is a Hollywood production, some liberties are taken with the actual story, but it’s all for the benefit of heightened suspense.

One of the great fabrications is the apprehensive scene at the airport just before boarding, followed by the Iranian guards’ frantic last ditch effort to catch the Americans on the tarmac.

“Argo” is an exciting action thriller that maintains a keen element of surprise even though we know the outcome. This is a real hit based on real events.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

It may sound like a broken record, but I really enjoy the evident trend of releasing classic TV series, some long forgotten, on DVD for new and old generations to enjoy.

“Mr. Lucky,” starring the dashing John Vivyan as a suave professional gambler, lasted one season more than 50 years ago, but was a hit show nonetheless.

Blake Edwards created the show, which featured the excellent music of composer Henry Mancini. Edwards and Mancini collaborated on a number of films.

In the stylish adventure-crime series “Mr. Lucky,” Vivyan’s Mr. Lucky was teamed with his good friend Andamo (Ross Martin) running a successful casino in Andamo’s homeland of Chobolbo.

After a brush with the country’s corrupt dictator, they lose everything when Andamo is discovered running guns to the rebels in Mr. Lucky’s yacht, Fortuna.

Their fortunes take a turn for the better when Lucky wins enough money gambling to buy another yacht, which he christens Fortuna II.

Lucky and Andamo turn the yacht into a floating casino, and then an upscale restaurant, anchored in international waters off the American coast.

“Mr. Lucky: The Complete Series” finds plenty of adventure for the duo when the yacht brings them into contact with numerous criminals and people hiding from criminals.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

A Kansas poet, Wyatt Townley has written a number of fine poems about the swift and relentless passage of time, one of the great themes of the world’s poetry, and I especially like this one.

Finding the Scarf

The woods are the book
we read over and over as children.
Now trees lie at angles, felled
by lightning, torn by tornados,
silvered trunks turning back

to earth. Late November light
slants through the oaks
as our small parade, father, mother, child,
shushes along, the wind searching treetops
for the last leaf. Childhood lies

on the forest floor, not evergreen
but oaken, its branches latched
to a graying sky. Here is the scarf
we left years ago like a bookmark,

meaning to return the next day,
having just turned our heads
toward a noise in the bushes,
toward the dinnerbell in the distance,

toward what we knew and did not know
we knew, in the spreading twilight
that returns changed to a changed place.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2007 by Wyatt Townley from her most recent book of poems, The Afterlives of Trees, Woodley Press, 2011. Poem reprinted by permission of Wyatt Townley and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2012 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Sherry Harris’ work will be featured at The Art House Gallery, 15210 Lakeshore Drive in Clearlake, through mid-November.

The gallery’s Third Friday Gala will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 19.

For the past 30 years, Harris has worked with natural plant materials to create three-dimensional forms and baskets.

She has seen her work evolve as she incorporates local materials into her art: Sea kelp when she lived in Baja, Calif.; palm fronds in Southern California; and mulberry branches in Lake County.

For now, though, baskets, jewelry and gourds have captured her imagination – as well as the occasional hut, which she currently has on display through Oct. 13 as part of the Lake County: EcoArts Sculpture Walk at Trailside Park in Middletown.

The Texas native feels that she was lucky to be influenced family. Her mother was a professional artist and her husband, Derek Harris, has been a painter under the name Rojax for 42 years. Their son, Diego Harris, is an multitalented artist who owns Diego’s Gallery in Upper Lake. Both also contribute their work to The Art House Gallery’s shows.

Formerly a Realtor in Lake County, Harris – who now lives in Clearlake – has more recently dedicated her full attention to art and is a promoter of Lake County art tourism.

Her goal is to see art become more visible in Lake County. She has a radio show on KPFZ 88.1 FM called “Big Art” and she puts together regular Lake County Art email newsletters from information gathered from artists and art organizations to help connect and inform Lake County artists and art supporters about art events and art classes.

Harris has a bachelor of arts degree with a major in art from California State University at Long Beach. She was a member of the Palos Verdes Art Center’s co-op gallery and The Artist Studio Gallery in the Los Angeles area where she was their director before moving to Lake County.

UKIAH, Calif. – Thursday, Oct. 18, at 7 p.m. marks the opening of the Friends of the Mendocino College fall reading series with a reading and talk by author Waights Taylor Jr.

His book, “Our Southern Home,” was awarded the 2012 Independent Publisher Silver Medal for Best Book in the Southeast Non-Fiction category in New York City this past summer.

One reviewer has likened Taylor’s writing to “Faulkner’s sociological and moral discontinuity and the author’s southern voice by cadence and phrasing reminding me of Shelby Foote and his cousin Horton.”

This nonfiction work deals with three 18-year-old southerners who start the day of March 25, 1931, not knowing that the events soon to occur in Scottsboro, Alabama, will lead them and the South on an inexorable journey of change: Clarence Norris is boarding a freight train as a hobo in Chattanooga; Waights Taylor Sr. is a student at the University of Alabama; Rosa McCauley Parks is a resident of Pine Level, Alabama.

The three become involved in the Scottsboro events in different ways with profound implications to the region and their lives.

Waights Taylor Jr., born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, currently lives in Santa Rosa, Calif.

His professional career included 24 years in the aviation industry and then 22 years in management consulting.

When his professional career was coming to an end, he turned to writing. He is an author, a poet, and a playwright.

His second book, “Our Southern Home: Scottsboro to Montgomery to Birmingham – The Transformation of the South in the Twentieth Century,” was published in October 2011.

This reading will be conducted as an “In conversation” type of appearance where questions by Mendocino College Head Librarian John Koetzner will be responded to by Waights Taylor Jr. which will elicit readings from different sections of his book.

The event will take place in Room 4210 in the new library building at the Mendocino College Ukiah campus, and it is sponsored by the Friends of the Mendocino College Library, an affiliate group of the Mendocino College Foundation. For more information, call 707-468-3051 or visit www.mendocino.edu .

TAKEN 2 (Rated PG-13)

Liam Neeson is now an action hero, and as such, he’s practically required, as a condition of membership in this elite fraternity of players, to do a repeat performance.

In “Taken,” Neeson proved he could wipe out a lot of Eurotrash bad guys while hardly working up a sweat. “Taken 2” is really, in so many ways, just more of the same.

Arguably, the basic premise is still in play. A kidnapping occurs. Neeson seeks revenge. Plenty of villains get killed in the process.

But, at least, “Taken 2” offers a few twists.

This time around, Neeson’s Bryan Mills, a retired CIA operative who now provides private security services, is the target from the outset.

The film opens with a graveside mass burial ceremony in Albania, where criminal boss Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedzija, reliable bad guy character actor) mourns the death of his son and others.

Murad’s son was the Albanian thug who had kidnapped Bryan’s daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) in the original film so that she would be forced into the sex slave trade.

Of course, none of this matters to the amoral Murad, who only cares that the brutal death of his son, at the hands of Bryan, should be avenged in a most horrific way.

In any event, Albania is a mere road trip from Istanbul, where Bryan has completed a job protecting a certain Arab sheik and his retinue from unseen threats.

Back on the home front, Kim is dating a new boyfriend, though her dad barely hides his suspicions.

Meanwhile, Bryan’s ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen), the mother of Kim, is now separated from her second husband.

Hence, a family reunion, of sorts, takes place in Istanbul, when Bryan mistakenly believes good times loom with a sightseeing tourist adventure in a city that is truly unique.

Indeed, Turkey’s most populous city makes for as much scenic backdrop as did Paris in the original “Taken.” Yet, Istanbul offers opportunity for plenty of exciting roof top action, such as has occurred in a couple of “Bourne” films.

When Murad and his thugs arrive in Istanbul, they learn that they just might get a hat trick for abducting the entire Mills clan.

Instead, Bryan and Lenore are snatched, while Kim stays behind at the hotel to enjoy the pool. Lenore is tied up and left hanging upside-down, while Bryan is chained to a pipe nearby.

The resourceful ex-spy manages to dial Kim on a cell phone while his hands are still bound together, and then proceeds to work with her on plotting their location on a map using a complex process.

At this point, I should mention that hand grenades and an assortment of other weapons that Bryan keeps locked up in a special metal suitcase come in handy.

Eventually, Bryan gets free but not in enough time to save Lenore from being moved to another secret hiding place. Suffice it to say, Murad and his goons never have a chance in this lopsided battle.

Taking over from co-writer Luc Besson, French director Olivier Megaton stirs up the kind of suspense that made the first “Taken” such a big hit.

“Taken 2” makes great use of the exotic Turkish locales, using the narrow streets for plenty of car chase action, though we’ve seen much better chases in the “Bourne” films and even the original “Taken.”

To be sure, the first “Taken” was more imaginative and had better character development (primarily for the more diverse villains) and even more innovative stunts and use of weaponry.

However, “Taken 2” is a capable, solid action picture that delivers the goods that just about fan of the original could expect or desire.

If you walked into “Taken 2” having loved the original, I would find it hard to believe that your feelings won’t come close to being the same this time.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

Dean Martin, a member of the Rat Pack, never seemed to take himself too seriously, and as a result, he was always fun to watch.

The versatile actor starred in all kinds of film genres. His best Western was probably “Rio Bravo,” in which he starred with John Wayne.

Now coming to DVD is an old Western in which Dean Martin played a notorious bandit. In “Something Big,” Martin’s Joe Baker has a dream to do “something big.”

The running joke is that everyone believes Joe is up to something, but no one knows what or even how big it actually is.

As part of his adventure, Joe seeks out a Gatling gun from a black marketer, but the price for this weapon is an exchange for an attractive woman.

So Baker kidnaps a female traveler off of the stagecoach, only to find that she’s the wife of the commandant (Brian Keith) of the local Cavalry detachment.

The kidnapped woman is Honor Blackman, who gained fame for her role of Pussy Galore in the James Bond classic “Goldfinger.”

Fans of Dean Martin (and count me in this group) should enjoy this classic Western film about an outlaw’s journey of love, deceit and violence.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

MENDOCINO, Calif. – The Fort Bragg Center for the Arts will present an unusual opportunity to hear the gorgeous Elgar Piano Quintet performed by the Yokayo Chamber Players on Sunday, Oct. 21.

The concert, presented by Fort Bragg Center for the Arts Music Series, will be held in Preston Hall, Mendocino, beginning at 3 p.m.

The Yokayo Chamber Players, a group of five top musicians – all of whom are soloists in their own right – have banded together to present this seldom performed quintet.

Audiences are familiar with Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” the violin and cello concertos, and they may have marched to “Pomp and Circumstances.” But the quintet isn’t often heard because it is so difficult to get five fine players to steal time from their other professional commitments for rehearsal.

The concert will feature the performance of Roy Malan, concertmaster of the San Francisco Ballet, and known locally as the concertmaster of the Mendocino Music Festival, along with Claudia Bloom, principal second violin of Opera San Jose; Elizabeth Prior, principal violist for the Santa Rosa Symphony, and Ukiah favorites cellist Joel Cohen and pianist Elena Casanova.

Besides the Elgar Quintet, the group will perform Dohnnyi’s “Serenade For Strings” trio and the Vieuxtemps “Sonata for Viola and Piano.”

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door and are available at Fiddles and Cameras and Harvest Market and in Mendocino at Moore’s Main Street Books.

For more information visit www.fbcamusicseries.com or call 707-937-1018.