Captain Phillips

"Maybe in America Irish, maybe in America"



A given with all my reviews - potential *spoilers alert*

Just managed to sneak seeing this before our top 10 posts... to be honest I thought I would have to re-adjust my list but in the end it wasn't quite worthy so no harm posting after.

If you're not up to speed on this one it's basically a 'true' story about an American ship & captain taken hostage by Somali pirates.  It can be easy sitting in my comfy lounge chair in front of my flat screen T.V to be swept up in the usual American propaganda however it becomes more difficult these days as we are made more aware of the cost of our decadent lives.  To be fair though I think this movie did give a small effort to show the 'other side of the story' however I couldn't help but feel like the pirates were the true victims as these four men with rifles on a lifeboat were chased down by multiple battleships, seal teams, helicopters and the navies finest.

All that aside though it's a pretty damn good movie.  Thank Christ I was watching this at home and not in the cinema.  Mr Greengrass has the tendency to hire camera men with Parkinson disease and at the cinema I may have thrown up all over my pop corn.   But with this style comes an absolute realism and .... what's that word that means completely immersed and feels like you're there?  Damn..

With all the U.S bravado and big action music I had flash backs in a couple of moments to Michael Bay - mainly the Rock... maybe Armageddon.  Quick cuts of military dudes yelling out status updates and orders around the place - definitely the right formulae.

There's not much point going into Tom Hanks performance.  We have come to expect nothing but perfection and once again he doesn't disappoint.   As the story progresses so does his character and emotional depth and he carries the movie along on his giant shoulders like so many before.   The fellas playing the pirates were damn good as well - especially the captain 'muse' played by Barkhad Abdi.   Is it just me or does this guy look a hell of a lot like Omar from 'The Wire'??

Overall a very decent and intense action/drama with solid acting and good (albeit shaky) production.  Definitely worth checking out.

One last thing to add - I hope Hans Zimmer got some royalties for the last track played, massive 'time' rip off.  However I did watch the credits and saw his name in the thank you list so maybe he was feeling generous?

7/10

IMDB Info