Good action thriller with great acting throughout the film.

Rating: 8/10 (24 September 2014)

Captain Phillips
According to the Navy, there has been nine successful piracy attacks this year opposed to the 34 successful in 2011 and 68 in 2010. In 2009, the hijacking of Captain Richard Phillip's cargo was reflected upon in a series of books he wrote to inform other people bout his drastic day at sea. In 2013 director Paul Greengrass acquired these stories and began to contract another heart throbbing film Captain Phillips. Phillips, played by world famous actor Tom Hanks, portrayed a significant amount of bravery during the hijacking of his cargo ship by Somalian pirates.
The film is mainly about a group of men who work for the union and are ordered to deliver cargo to Mombasa, Somalia's neighbor. Under the leadership of Captain Richard Phillips, the men work hard and stay strong despite being attacked by Somalian Pirates. The pirates are not knowledgeable of the ship or much technology and Phillips uses that to their advantage to help alleviate the situation. The Somalian's know the territory and recognize U.S tactics and refuse to give up.
Director Paul Greengrass did an absurd job choosing his cast and using Tom Hanks who has starred in many popular movies. Hanks is not known for being in thriller movies, but does an incredible job in Captain Phillips. Greengrass held a casting call in Minneapolis in which 700 people tried out for the final spot, Abduwali Muse. Muse was the leader of all the Somalian Pirates who's movie famous line was "I'm the captain now." He made a brilliant decision by picking Barkhad Abdi, a Somalian native who moved to Minnesota when he was only 14. Captain Phillips was Abdi's first in the film industry and he definitely started out with a bang. He ended up winning the screen actors guild award for the best supporting actor and an Academy award for the best supporting actor.
In my opinion Greengrass did not use much of a suspenseful tone. I think the movie needed a little more of a buildup of suspense so it could have more of the thriller aspect to it. Greengrass did create good suspense when the pirates hitched their latter onto the boat. The background noise went silent when this happened.
This film is so intriguing because everyone's image of a pirate is Captain Jack Sparrow who is a witty, funny, drunk and sarcastic pirate. Very few people realize that piracy is a true threat to ships traveling through the horn of Africa. The Somalian people live in poverty and piracy is one of their main ways of bringing in money to the community.
In my opinion, Greengrass did a tremendous job showing the world a real life situation of what Richard Phillips and his men struggled through. The actors he picked were perfect for the way he needed to relay the story to the world. Hanks and Abdi both did phenomenal jobs even though Hanks did not win an Academy award and Abdi did. Life is challenging in many parts of Africa and piracy is a common method of bringing in revenue. People should see this movie to create a better image of real piracy in their mind. This movie did an outstanding job displaying how Somalian people live in poverty and piracy is okay in their culture. So if you ever find yourself in the horn of Africa, watch out for pirates! Captain Richard Phillips and his crew displayed an immense amount of courage throughout the hijacking of their cargo ship.