Captain Phillips

 In early 2009, for the first time since the early 19th century, an American ship was successfully boarded and hijacked by pirates. The Maersk Alabama was only held for a few hours but for four terrifying days the four Somalia pirates held the captain of the Alabama hostage in a small lifeboat. People said it could've been a movie. Hollywood heard them.

Captain Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama is just trying to do his job: get safely to port and deliver his shipping containers to the right people. Muse is just trying to do his...unfortunately his job is hijacking the Maersk Alabama.... and he's a little better at his. After a tense cat and mouse chase on the open sea Muse is successful in securing Captain Phillips' ship...and then the story gets really incredible.

There is a lot of controversy about this film and Captain Phillips behavior prior to the hijacking. For this review I am going to pretend there is none and the movie is accurate...because its just that good. I am not a fan of Paul Greengrass's film style. While all good stories, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum and The Green Zone all showed his 'shaky cam' style of shooting. This has really become the new norm for action films (unfortunately in my opinion) but for the tense thriller that Captain Phillips is, there is no better fit. That paired with Tom Hanks best performance in years makes Captain Phillips an irresistible, visceral thriller. Keep the tissues handy for the last scenes.