[Movie Review] Captain Phillips (2013)

Posted on October 11, 2013 by thegrandshuckett in Movie Reviews // 0 Comments

Plot Summary: 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.

Director: Paul Greengrass

Writer: Billy Ray (screenplay), Richard Phillips (based upon the book "A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea" by), Stephan Talty (based upon the book "A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea" by)

Runtime: 134 min

Main Cast:

Tom Hanks as Captain Richard Phillips
Barkhad Abdi as Muse
Barkhad Abdirahman as Bilal
Faysal Ahmed as Najee
Mahat M. Ali as Elmi

Review: by Anthony and Lee

Like most people, we were aware of the story of Captain Phillips when it was happening. So, we knew that he would be captured by pirates, and we knew that he would not die. Other than that, we weren't well versed enough to know the details. Captain Phillips had been mentioned in Oscar talks, however, so we also knew we had to see it.

What We Liked:

Aside from whatever weird accent Tom Hanks was using for the movie, his acting held up to its usual standards. He did what Tom Hanks does; He delivered an Oscar nomination-worthy performance as Captain Richard Phillips, a regular family man who thought of others before himself in dire situations.

What We Didn’t Like:

Shaky Cam was shaky. Just like in Paul Greengrass’s The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, the shaky cam scenes were terrible and jarring and felt like a cheap trick to amp up the action.

The fact that the movie was based on true events hampered it, shackling it to some semblance of reality. The goal of seeing a movie is to be entertained and, in our eyes, swept away from reality. Captain Phillips did the opposite.

The Somali pirates were the clear bad guys, but they were annoying from the first scene onward. As the movie progressed, certain scenes attempted to paint them in a “victim of circumstances” light, but it was completely unbelievable. We felt absolutely no sympathy for them, despite the film’s multiple attempts to humanize them. We can’t be sure of how accurately the pirates were portrayed, but they were exceedingly frustrating and irritating.

There were also plenty of heavy handed comparisons between the wealth of America and the poverty of Somalia.

Summary

The Captain Phillips story was interesting news with a feel good ending that did not need to be made into a feature length film. The movie adaptation was aggravating and unpleasant.

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