Theater Whore: Captain Phillips

I got tired of seeing commercials talking about how inspirational the movie Captain Phillips was. This is based off what really happened a few years ago where a ship was taken over by pirates. Well, that concludes the review! I mean, that pretty much is the movie when you think about it. I'm not knocking it at all. It was a good movie but the story is pretty simple. Thankfully director Paul Greengrass handled this and he is good at working in small spaces and making people just staring feel important.

Tom Hanks stars as Captain Richard Phillips. Its his job to sail this big ass ship around parts of Africa where lots of pirate attacks have been happening to deliver supplies and aid. He is fully aware of all of this and starts having his crew do drills just in case they ever get taken over or attacked. They seem to be kinda lazy about it or not thinking it'll actually happen. That is until it does. Some of the crew is like “This is bullshit! I want to stop and go home!” and Phillips is like “You can come to my office and fill out the union paperwork and when we get to Africa you can leave.”

The story flips back and forth at the start between the pirates led by Abduwali Muse played by Barkhad Abdi who people are saying may get nominated for his performance. He and his boys come at the ship and Phillips and his crew start speeding up the boat and making the water too rough for them to catch up. They make it away safely until the next day when these guys show up with a faster boat. Phillips and his crew once again try to get away and start to blast the pirates with water. They still manage to start shooting at them and make it aboard.

Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, and Mike. I got a girl. Who cares who you like?!

Muse and his dudes hold Phillip and a couple of his men hostage while the rest hide at the bottom of the ship. They are forced to give up some cash on board and check out the rest of the ship at gunpoint. The crew that was hiding manage to injure one of the guys by putting broken glass on the floor and he steps all over it. They end up capturing the pirate leader and attempt to trade him for Phillips which goes about as well as you'd think. They yank his ass onto the lifeboat and leave with him.

You're probably wondering where the government is at this time. Well, when they called for help the first time they were attacked no one as answering the phone. I shit you not. No one answered. Then the next call they made they were told pretty much “Uh, thanks for letting us know. Well, uh, get right on that.” The Navy shows up and the film switches between showing them getting set to come and make the rescue. They honestly spend a bit too much time showing this stuff. It feels like it should have been its own movie and doesn't belong or fit the tone of this one. Oh, and Seal Team 6 is pretty much portrayed as these lunatics that are gonna just shoot up the lifeboat as soon as they arrive. Now its like a race between who is gonna shoot Phillips first, these damned Somalian pirates or the Seals.

Phillips tries to reason with the pirates and let them know that there is no good way to come out of this. He even tries to help them out with their injuries. The Navy try and negotiate with the pirates, lie to them, and Phillips even gets away at one point only to be recaptured. The pirates are pretty stereotypical of bad guys. The leader who understands logic and isn't 100% bad. The young one that never quite understands what is happening. The crazy one that likes to hurt people. And the pilot who is always like “What the fuck is going on back there?! I cant turn around and look even though we are in completely open water!”

Since Phillips wrote the book that this movie is based off of you can pretty much gather how it ends. It took me a while to get over Hanks' Boston accent. The best part to me hardly involve much speaking on Hanks' part. After he is rescued and everything is sinking in and he is talking to a medic you believe that he just experienced all this stuff for real. Its good movie but not one I need to watch again. Its worth checking out though.

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