Captain Phillips

 

Captain Phillips 2013

• Director: Paul Greengrass
• Based on the book by Richard Phillips and a book by Stephan Talty
• Cast: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Tom Hanks – The Circle, Sully, Cloud Atlas, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Cast Away, Catch Me If You Can, Road to Perdition, The Green Mile, You Have Mail, Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Sleepless in Seattle, A League of Their Own, Punchline
• Barkhad Abdi – Blade Runner 2049, Eye in the Sky
• Why? Good reviews.
• Seen: 20 December 2022. 

       Richard Phillips (Hanks) is captain of a cargo ship delivering food containers to Africa. Somalian pirates led by Muse (Abde) take over the ship and escape in a life boat with Phillips as hostage.

       For being an exciting film, it’s quite boring. And far too long. Too much shouting and shooting and irritating excitement-building (supposedly) music. It’s shallow and ignores the possibility of building up background character of the pirates and the political conflicts caused by historical imperialism. Far too much American gung ho.

       It’s not Hanks’s best film, nor his best performance. In fact, Abdi as Muse is the better actor here in his first film role. 

2 * of 5