CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Paul Greengrass, 2013) **1/2

Rating: 6/10 (25 February 2014)

Nominated for 6 Academy Awards in the upcoming Oscar ceremony (Film, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing), the based-on-fact hijack drama CAPTAIN PHILLIPS somewhat surprisingly missed out on Best Actor (some critics claimed this was double Oscar winner Tom Hanks' best-ever performance) and Best Direction (Greengrass is credited with inventing a new style of kinetic thriller with his BOURNE movies). Although I have watched – and suffered through – both PHILADELPHIA (1993) and FORREST GUMP (1994) in the past, I have yet to watch the director's previous Oscar nod, the similarly-sourced- and-themed UNITED 93 (2006) or, for that matter, any of the reinvented Ludlums.
Whenever I read in the news of an international ship being overtaken by African pirates, I could not help thinking that anyone who unwisely ventures into such all-too-obviously dangerous waters deserves whatever fate he encounters. Watching this movie only reinforced that notion – although, to be sure, Hanks is shown doing his utmost to ditch his pursuers and, once they successfully board his vessel, trick them; thankfully, we are also spared any teary-eyed flashbacks to Hanks' domestic life on land when he is individually kidnapped and beaten up.
Admittedly, the film is both gripping (the initial game of cat-and-mouse between the hiding crew and the advancing Somali pirates) and moving (when Hanks breaks down after being saved by the Navy Seals); however, apart from being overlong at 134 minutes, my enthusiasm for the partly- shot-in-Malta CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Hanks was constantly "tweeting" about his stay over here last Summer) was decidedly marred by two of the most obnoxious villains in screen history (including Oscar nominee Barkhad Abdi – whose role seems to run out of steam in the film's latter stages anyway and, incidentally, his constant referral to Hanks as "Irish" is just unbelievableas I doubt anyone in Somalia has ever even heard of the country!) who are not only unattractive to look at (if that sounds racist, sue me!) but their constantly hysterical and (no doubt, for veracity's sake) unsubtitled declamations got on my nerves long before the fadeout!