Captain Phillips Review

Pirates. At Halloween time? Perfect, right? I always enjoy a good pirate movie. Normally, though, when you think of a movie about a pirate you think Captain Hook from Peter Pan or Captain Jack Sparrow. Big hat. Hook as a hand. Parrot on the shoulder. Large ship, old-fashioned ship with huge black sails. Treasure hunting. Pirates. In the new movie, Captain Phillips, we get more pirates. However, these pirates are much different because they are actual, genuine pirates. And it is such a fantastic story.

Back in 2009, a cargo ship carrying 17,000 tons of cargo was about 600 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia when it was boarded by four Somalian pirates. What happened next was quite the dramatic turn of events. I won't go any further into the story than that, but you may actually remember it being on the news a few years back. When all was said and done, Captain Richard Phillips wrote a book about his experiences. That film rights of the book were immediately required by Colombia Pictures and now just four years after the dramatic events, we have our movie. Because that's what we do in Hollywood. We turn everything into a movie. In this specific instance, though, I'm not complaining.

Captain Phillips stars Tom Hanks as Captain Phillips and by goodness he does a great job. Hanks has made a lot of great movies in his day, winning the Oscar for Best Actor twice and being nominated three other times. With that said, I am going to boldly claim that this performance is one of his best performances to date. What makes me say that is his performance during the final scenes of the movie. The beginning and middle of the movie he was good, but that ending is just, wow! He is definitely headed back to the Oscars for his sixth Best Actor nomination. If it were my choice, he would also get his third win. That's how good he is.

However, Tom Hanks isn't the only thing that makes this an excellent movie. I have to give major kudos to the four actors who played our four Somalian pirates. All four are brand new to acting, which is super impressive because after watching this you'd think they all were seasoned veterans. The story itself is super intense and has you on the edge of your seat the whole team. Also, I was impressed at how they did the pirates' side of the story. It wasn't just Tom Hanks and crew sailing a ship and having suddenly having four pirates jump their ship. It showed a lot of the pirates' perspective, and at times you even felt bad for them. After watching the movie, I was curious to know more about the actual story, and it turns out they did a really accurate job with it as Captain Richard Phillips himself said the movie was really accurate. Topping it all off, I think the music was perfect and should get consideration when it comes to Oscar time.

In conclusion, I would say that Captain Phillips is well worth your time. Story was great. Tom Hanks was amazing. The four pirates did a super job in their acting debuts. This movie is one that has a lot of Oscar buzz surrounding it and I hope it does well at the Oscars, because it deserves it. I am giving Captain Phillips a solid 9 out of 10.