Captain Phillips Review

We're going to need a bigger ship---Tom Hanks as the captain of a ship being taken hostage in Captain Phillips
                         Captain Phillips is a defining, confirming moment in an already spectacular career. This is a film that never would have worked if not for the presence of the lead actor. That lead actor is Tom Hanks who, despite having already won two Oscars and having been nominated five times altogether, will be robbed if he doesn't AT LEAST get a nomination for the upcoming February awards show. This is a performance in which Hanks does more with one glance than most actors can do with a whole screenplay. That's not to say there's not other great performances in the film. Barkhad Abdi, in his very first role plays Muse...the leader of the Hijackers who Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) must fight off and defeat.

                              The film is based on the autobiography of Phillips which focuses on the events in this film. Namely---Phillips's ship was taken over by four modern day Somali pirates. That's as far as I'm going to get into the plot because a lot of what happens is not exactly what one would expect to happen with this basic outlined plot at hand. I will say, however, that Captian Phillips is a modern day masterpiece as well as the most intenser 134 minutes any audience member will spend gripped to their seat.

                                Directed by Paul Greengrass---this is somewhat similar to his film, United 93 which was shot in real time. While this is not shot in real time...there is very little time manipulation at hand. Also, as with United 93....Greengrass directs Captain Phillips with such a gritty and realistic style that one feels as if they are with Phillips himself. The screenplay by Billy Ray (The Hunger Games, Breach, State Of Play) is also quite fantastic. It attempts to very much humanize the pirates and does. By the end...you feel bad for them and that makes the film a total success alone.

                                Fantastic acting, incredibly skilled direction and a tight, intense script make Captain Phillips one of the best films of the year so far. If you haven't seen this film...by all means, do so especially considering that this film is going to get nominated and most likely win all kinds of oscars.
(5 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated PG-13 for sustained intense sequences of menace, some violence with bloody images and substance use)