Capt. Richard Phillips
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Oct 11, 2013 · A gripping docudrama of a 2009 hijacking attempt by Somali pirates on an American cargo ship, starring Tom Hanks as the captain. The film shows the tension, drama and humanity of the situation, but also the limitations of the characters and the genre.
The captain of the ship, Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), looks to protect his crew from the hostile invaders, and their leader, Muse (Barkhad Abdi).
- (281)
- Paul Greengrass
- PG-13
- Tom Hanks
- Riveting true tale on the high seas.
- Verdict
By Matt Patches
Posted: Sep 30, 2013 11:51 pm
This review is part of IGN's 2013 New York Film Festival coverage
Tom Hanks spends most of Captain Phillips with a gun in his face. In a recreation of the 2009 Somali pirate siege of Captain Richard Phillips' ship, the MV Maersk Alabama, Bourne Ultimatum and United 93 director Paul Greengrass keeps one pointed at our foreheads too. At least it feels like it, with Greengrass adapting action filmmaking tactics to drops us in the middle of this high-tension situation. Stay all the way through Captain Phillips' credits; your heart will need the cool down period.
The danger is real in Captain Phillips — and not simply because what we see really happened. Run-of-the-mill action movies have killers descending on unknowing prey, slow burn searches through dimly-lit corridors, and standoffs set to the booming beats of a ticking clock. The difference is Captain Phillips immerses every character, “good” and “bad,” into a pressure cooker and hands them AK47s. Greengrass and screenwriter Billy Ray clash the American crewmen and the impoverished Somalis without ever reducing them to stereotypes. The movie is a deconstructed thriller that allows people to act like people, with Hanks and newcomer Barkhad Abdi, as the Somali captain, delivering two riveting performances.
Phillips isn't a “hero.” He's just a guy with a job running a cargo ship. We meet him driving to the airport with his wife, wondering how they'll get their youngest kid back on track in school. Casual talk. A few days later, Phillips is defending himself and his crew while en route to Mombasa, Kenya. He approaches the situation in the same way he would any other task: step-by-step, completely by the book.
Captain Phillips sets the bar for high stakes and visceral filmmaking, offering a brave, heartfelt Tom Hanks as a new type of action hero.
- Matt Patches
User Reviews. Based on true events, Paul Greengrass' Captain Phillips is the rarest of thrillers, the kind that relies on neither distracting special effects nor circumspect character development.
Oct 11, 2013 · The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
- (48)
- Paul Greengrass
- PG-13
Sep 6, 2013 · Captain Phillips: Film Review. Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks team up for a pulsating account of the kidnapping of the captain of an American cargo ship by...
Captain Phillips is a great adult orientated thriller that has a wonderful sense of tension and a career best Tom Hanks performance. You owe it to yourself to see this.
