How
often do you walk into the movie theater and pay a pretty penny for you and
your family to see a cinematic adventure when you know exactly how the movie is
going to end? Well, if you’re like me
and the throngs of movie-goers that eagerly plodded in to watch “Captain
Phillips”, that’s exactly what you did.
Just
sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip… no wait… that
was “Gilligan’s Island”.
“Captain
Phillips” is the film adaptation of the true story of Captain Richard Phillips,
who was the skipper of the Maersk Alabama.
Phillips, wonderfully portrayed by Tom Hanks, is a normal guy that lives
in Vermont who simply wants to do his job and go home. He’s relatively new to the ship’s crew, so
there’s not much of a working relationship.
After a short time out to sea, he learns of pirate activity off the
Somalian coast, so they run drills, only to have the drills turn into the
“real-deal”.
The
Somalian pirates are an interesting group.
Initially, there are two boats that attempt to hijack the Alabama, but when Phillips and his crew
outsmart them, only one returns. When it
does, it returns with the more ruthless and “intelligent” (using that word
loosely) Abduwali Muse (played by newcomer Barkhad Abdi) who is the leader of
the pirates and declares himself the “captain”.
After a game of cat and mouse between the crew and the pirates on the
ship, it becomes evident that there is no way the pirates can actually take
over the massive cargo ship. Instead,
they take Phillips and escape on a lifeboat.
(SPOILER
ALERT…. IF YOU WERE ALIVE AND NOT UNDER A ROCK IN APRIL 2009, CONTINUE
READING. IF NOT, STOP READING HERE.)
The
rest, shall we say is history. The Navy SEALs
show up and do what they do best. Shoot
bad guys in the head.
I
enjoyed this movie tremendously. I can’t
remember the last time that I walked into a movie knowing what was going to
happen in the end, yet still was captivated and on the edge of my seat wanting
to know the exacts of how it was all going to go down. The flow of the movie was good, and it seemed
to move along pretty well for the two-plus hours. I found that it only lagged for a short time
during the lifeboat scene. The only part
of the movie that I really found fault with was the final scene when Phillips
was being checked out by medical on the Navy ship. Maybe it’s just Jeff being picky because I
was a medic in the Army for a hundred years, but I’d like to think that they
would’ve had an actual doctor looking at Phillips and not just a Navy
Corpsman. As for the PG-13 rating? Warranted.
I would let my teenager watch this movie without hesitation, as the only
terrible scene was when the SEALs were doing what SEALs do best. As for allowing a 9-year-old kid to watch the
movie? Probably not the best idea. I hear “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is
great and is still playing.
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