MOVIE PIT: CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

Hey everyone! Welcome to Movie Pit. Movie Pit is a weekly movie review on TDN. All ratings for Movie Pit are based on the website Rotten Tomatoes, the free movie review website which judges if something is a ripe tomato (Above 60%) or a rotten tomato (Under 60%).

Captain Phillips is a multi-layered examination of the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates. It is – through director Paul Greengrass’s distinctive lens – simultaneously a pulse-pounding thriller and a complex portrait of the myriad effects of globalization. The film focuses on the relationship between Alabama’s commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips (two time Academy Award (R)-winner Tom Hanks), and the Somali pirate captain, Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who takes him hostage. Phillips and Muse are set on an unstoppable collision course when Muse and his crew target Phillips’ unarmed ship; in the ensuing standoff, 145 miles off the Somali coast, both men will find themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control. The film is directed by Academy Award (R) nominee Paul Greengrass, from a screenplay by Billy Ray based upon the book, A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea, by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty. The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, and Michael De Luca. (c) Sony

As you can see, I am reviewing “Captian Phillips” this week. “Captain Phillips” is said to be a great movie by 92% of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes and, according to the reviews, it deserves the 94% it received!!! According to Peter Travers from Rolling Stone, “This is acting of the highest order in a movie that raises the bar on what a true-life action thriller can do.” Another great review was by Mark Kermode from Observer (UK) who said, “For all its action aesthetics and nail-biting, gut-wrenching tension, this is on some level a film about globalization, about what happens when the paths of the very poor and the very rich intersect in the crossfire of world economics.”

There are plenty of other great reviews but they are solely on Tom Hanks’ acting. “The entire performance is one of the greatest in Hanks’ prolific, varied career – a role that gives him a massive arc and the opportunity to show great range,” was started by Christy Lemire from christylemire.com. Also, Richard Roeper from richardroeper.com says that “It’s the work of Tom Hanks that makes this film unforgettable.” Finally, Tom Long from the Detroit News claimed, “This is one of the year’s best movies and it features Tom Hanks’ strongest work in more than a decade. But it’s a live wire, a time bomb of a film that, when it finally releases, leaves your nerves scrambled.”

With these great reviews, I also found 2 dreadful statements. The first comes from Ed Whitfield from The Ooh Tray who said, plain and simple, “Something’s missing: human interest.” The only other one I was able to find was by Eric Melin with scene-stealers.com. “…too long and doesn’t hold up the tension or danger long enough. Hanks lends his Phillips some emotional heft, but the typical heroics of the Hollywood thriller seem out of place in this style of presentation,” he said.

Hats off to the actors, producers, and director. Great film!!!!