Tom Hanks Holds His Own Against Somali Pirates In CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

Opening today at a multiplex near you:


CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

(Dir. Paul Greengrass, 2013)

Tom Hanks’ most vital and powerful film since CAST AWAY dramatizes to great effect the hijacking of the cargo ship MV Maersk Alabama, which made headlines in 2009. 

 

Working from a screenplay by Billy Ray (based on the book “A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea” by the real Captain Phillips and Stephan Talty), Paul Greengrass applies his action thriller skills, honed on other films based on real-life events (BLOODY SUNDAY, UNITED 93) and BOURNE sequels, to the tension-filled material set almost exclusively on the high seas.

I say “almost” because we get a bit of set-up on land with Catherine Keener, as Hank’s wife, driving her husband in their minivan to the airport. We get a little insight into their home-life as they discuss their son’s future with Hanks worrying aloud that “the world is moving fast. It’s not going to be easy for our children.”

Then Hanks is off to sea on a shipping route along the Somali coast, where his worries change considerably as he’s well aware of how dangerous these waters are. Hanks puts his crew through anti-hijacking practice drills to ensure safety measures, but before long they are face to face with the real thing: four armed Somali pirates.

The pirates, led by Barkhad Abdi in an impressive performance for a first-time actor, were able to board by way of hooking a long ladder to the side of the ship, while Hanks has his men hide in the bowels of the engine room. The Captain offers the pirates the $30,000 they have in the ship’s safe, but it’s not enough to satisfy Abdi, who knows that there will be fatal repercussions if he doesn’t return home with much more than that.

The tension mounts when the Navy shows up, with the macho Max Martini as a SEAL negotiator, but unfortunately this marks where the movie begins to feel a bit routine. The film is perhaps 20 minutes too long, drawn out too heavily by a sequence in which snipers target the pirates as they try to make their escape. The sequence drags because we know exactly what’s going to happen and it takes too long to get there.

But despite the electricity of the pacing fading in its last third, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, like Alfonso Cuarón’s GRAVITY, is a sure sign that the Oscar-baiting fall movie season has begun. Greengrass’s shaky-cam shot documentary-style production isn’t as good as the visually stunning and awe-inspiring GRAVITY, but it’s a work of genuine quality with Hanks at the top of his game.

It’s obvious why the part of Captain Richard Phillips appealed to the two-time Best Actor Oscar winner – he’s a by-the-book hard working family man, not unlike Hanks himself. After the over the top stunt casting of Hanks as six different characters in Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer and Andy Wachowski’s CLOUD ATLAS last year, it’s a simply a treat to see him as a normal guy, holding his own in abnormal circumstances. Do I smell a third Oscar?

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GREEN ZONE: The Film Babble Blog Review

GREEN ZONE (Dir. Paul Greengrass, 2010)








Going in to this movie I knew precious little about it. I hadn't seen a trailer or even given the movie poster more than a passing glance. I only knew it was a Matt Damon/Paul Greengrass/war movie. 

But in the first five minutes I knew exactly where it was going to go. In those five minutes, Damon, as a US Chief Warrant Officer in 2003 war torn Iraq, pulls up with his crew to a location that Intel tells them houses Weapons of Mass Destruction. They find the rotting remains of a toilet factory instead. 

Damon goes back to his superiors and tells them that the WMDs weren't there (or any of the other locations they've been to) and the Intel is bad. They sternly tell him to stand down. From that description, do you see where this is going? 

Do you see shoot-outs, shady informers, sleazy politicians, and compromised journalists? 

Do you see a climax involving Damon, aggressively and a tad bit violently, confronting the sleazy politician (played by Greg Kinnear) over the government conspiracy spreading lies in a public place/photo op? 

That's what I call that "THE FUGITIVE ending" and it, like everything else in this less than thrilling thriller, you've seen before.

Many many times before. This is a standard issue liberal-minded political action drama that made me wish Damon and Greengrass had just made another BOURNE movie. In last year's THE INFORMANT! (one of last year's best films and a role he should've been nominated for IMHO) Damon really pulled off something different; a fully realized character that was almost unrecognizable.

In this and play it safe parts like INVICTUS, he's just plain old Matt Damon going through the motions. We never get any sense of who the character Damon is beyond his military conviction. There is no phone call from back home or any line that tells us who he is outside of this plot. 

The lack of such insights makes one really appreciate the newly Oscar Best Picture approved THE HURT LOCKER so much more. The compelling drive of that vital Iraq war film really reduces such a lackluster work as GREEN ZONE to the soulless shaky cam rubble it is. 

I could be wrong but I swear Matt Damon did not smile once in the entirity of that movie. That might sound like a minor quibble but when he flashes that sharp glaring grin it can be quite stinging. Since I didn't smile once either I can't really blame him. 

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