Captain Phillips

Rating: 9/10 (10 October 2013)

In April 2009, the Maersk Alabama was boarded by four Somali pirates. They took control of the ship, took the money from the safe, and took the captain hostage. Hailing from Vermont, loving family man Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) receives his directions to captain a cargo ship from Oman to Kenya, going around the Horn of Africa, and straight through pirate territory. Having already been nervous, Captain Phillips' fears quickly become reality when pirates pursue and take control of the ship.
The pirates are first seen in their run down village in Somalia, where supplies are scarce and villagers struggle to survive the day. With no jobs around, the Somalis are forced to pillage passing ships for money. The Somalis desperation is shown when the men are fighting over who will go on the mission. The soulless look on their faces exemplifies the extent they go to just to get money, and the lack of life they have. Things seem to be going smoothly for the pirates until they kidnap Captain Phillips, when things quickly start to deteriorate.
Captain Phillips is a slam dunk. Tom Hanks is on par, if not better than his past performances in his portrayal of Richard Phillips' ordeal. Barkhad Abdi's acting as Muse, the captain of the Somali pirates, is fantastic. He comes off as calm, cool, and collected. Even when things are getting down to the wire and his crew is under tremendous pressure, Muse is wonderfully able to keep control, and Abdi does a great job of bringing his part of this true story to the silver screen. In his first movie since 2010, and only his second since 2007′s The Bourne Ultimatum, director Paul Greengrass truly put together a marvelous movie.
There isn't much to dislike about Captain Phillips. At times, the background music was a tad too loud and made the voices hard to hear, but other than that, Hanks, Abdi, and Greengrass really knocked this one out of the park. This movie is a definite must see.
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