Captain Phillips

FLIX!

Tom Hanks plays the Captain of a cargo tanker on a routine run down the coast of Africa. But this isn't made up mumbo-jumbo hollywood fodder for the masses. This stuff really happened. And if you were paying any attention to the news in the last few years, you probably remember this story. Sudanese pirates overtook a cargo tanker on a routine run down the coast of Africa. When the Captain of the tanker, Captain Richard Phillips was taken captive by pirates and Navy Seals were called in?

The film starts routinely enough, and that is good. It shows a nice thorough Captain taking control and tightening down a new-to-him cargo ship. He even decides to run some training "pirate" drills, because of where they are geographically. But then, the drama takes on an new dynamic.....they spot approaching vessels and they quickly ascertain that they are indeed marauding pirate boats coming to do their dirty work.

The film takes on a tension that is not easily described. It is intense, and immediate. I kind of knew the story-line, but that did not give me a free pass on this one. It kept my attention and intrigued me the entire time. Tension....tension.

The rest of the cast as the crew? Not so much. The pirates? What an exciting and interesting bunch of guys. They lent a dimension of truth and reality to this that totally sold me. They were very skinny men, but very formidable. And very smart. And very, very dangerous.

It ends the way you know it will, but not entirely. Hanks has a scene with a Navy nurse (she actually got physically ill the first take just from being in a room with Tom Hanks...but Tom talked her through it, and she became wonderful.) She became a terrific platform for Hanks to work from..to show that even though he's been on a coffee break with stuff like "The Terminal", "Cast Away", "Catch Me if You Can" etc....he still has his chops. Hanks does some great and gifted work in this scene, and to me, it's worth the price of admission.

So, note to all adults. Go see this really good movie. Because see, if we don't, then Hollywood will truly believe that, all we as an audience really want, are super-heroes blowing up. We need to stop this trend. We are the biggest demographic with the most money. Let's make the pimply-faced Hollywood execs dance to our piper for a change.

Go see this gang. It is a great movie experience.

GRADE: B+