One of the most intense films I've seen in a while.

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2014)

It's got to be difficult to take a true story and make it into an intense thriller. Before watching this film I looked up the story of the actual Richard Phillips and therefore knew that he made it out okay. Yet somehow at the near end of this movie I was biting my nails at how intense this was. Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) is the captain of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama. When traveling around Somalia his ship is taken over by Somali pirates. But when the cargo crew manage to subdue a weapon from Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi) the leader Muse escapes with the rest of the pirates in a lifeboat and holds Captain Phillips hostage. The rest of the movie is the US Navy negotiating with Muse about Captain Phillips's return home. This part is incredibly intense. It was still intense after I read about the real story too so Paul Greengrass did a good job. Hanks's performance was stellar as always so if you like intense films don't miss this.