Captain Phillips

The piercingly realistic Captain Phillips will exceed your expectations.

Both Greengrass and Hanks are on award-deserving form in a riveting, emotionally complex and hugely intelligent dramatisation of a real-life ordeal.

While this is arguably Greengrass’ best film, it’s almost certainly his most urgent.

Captain Phillips works precisely because Hanks isn't a muscle-bound, gun-toting figure (nor does he turn into one during the course of the movie). Placed in an untenable position, he uses guile and intelligence instead of brawn and weapons to enhance his survival chances.

The surprise is that Captain Phillips is a surprise in the first place, pitching and rolling tirelessly like the sea on which it is set and, in the process, becoming one of the most enjoyable and well-made movies to hit theaters this year.

The film succeeds on its own terms — an exciting entertainment that makes us feel good about the outcome, and about the reach of American power, rather than its limits. Yet the narrative container is far from full. There isn't enough incident or complexity to sustain the entire length of this elaborately produced star vehicle.

There is something too dry and austere about Greengrass and Ray’s telescoped vision, which touches only fleetingly on the pirates’ motives, the suffering of the Somali people and the collateral damage of global capitalism.

(Note: I didn't see the first ~10-30 minutes of the film.) I thoroughly enjoyed this film; it had very good suspense. I loved how they dealt with the ending!

The Pirates of Somalia is a better film about the subject, Tom Hanks acts well on this occasion, however he is still Tom Hanks, for a moment you confuse the character with the endless similar scripts he has played. The movie has a good rhythm, however there are unreal things that obviously didn't happen in the real event, besides the fact that at the middle of the movie it becomes an action film, with shots and kicks in the head.

This is well-directed and fairly compelling but ends up overlong and unrealistic in parts.

The well was poisoned for me. 1. Capt Phillips story is totally fabricated by Hollywood. The crew hated him and have filed lawsuits against the movie's story. To please his bosses Phillips ventured to within 250 miles of the coast even though he had incessant advance warnings to stay beyond 600 miles! 2. Helpless non-armed million dollar ships deserve whatever they get if they don't arm themselves in any way and choose to cower like scared church mice in a dark corner when danger threatens. Phillips fired flares at the approaching pirates. No, not joking, that's how pathetic this is. Only thing acceptable about the movie were the production values and Tom Hanks' actual performance as fantastically made up as it was.

Bravo! Hanks is back and in fine form, as usual the man put me to sleep in about 5 minutes. Only problem is Julia Roberts is nowhere to be seen, if she was in it I would have been asleep before the opening credits finished. Hanks deserve a lifetime award of some sort for being the most bland boring man in Hollowood.