Captured by "Captain Phillips" Film

After recently seeing Captain Phillips, I am still thinking about the movie and its characters. This true story of a man being captured at sea pulls in watchers with a hook and sink deal.

 In the exposition, Phillips prepares for a long journey to deliver cargo around south Africa. While on the sea, his team encounters several Somali pirates that threaten to board the ship. The first time they meet the pirates they do not succeed, but they track Phillips' boat once more- and they're not as unlucky as before. Once boarded, the four pirates take over the ship and threaten several crew members. With the rest hidden, the pirates take Phillips and search for all of the other members. With his wits, Phillips manages to gear them from his men until one decides to attack a pirate. From there, the action rises and the four pirates capture Phillips and escape through an emergency boat. But that's only the beginning of this horrifying journey.

With Tom Hanks playing Captain Richard Phillips and introducing Barkhad Abdi as the Somali pirate captain, Muse, the characters and plot build into a terrifying tale at sea. Other characters and their actors that really help shape the movie are Barkhad Abdirahman (Bilal), Faysal Ahmed (Najee), and Mahat M. Ali (Elmi). Each of them did a superb job at portraying their characters. Hanks, as usual, acts his part extremely well. The newer faces on screen like Abdi have impressed watchers all over with his incredible performance. It was the actors that really made this movie.

Each exciting scene leaves you on the edge of your seat, wanting to know what happens next. There wasn't a dull moment in Captain Phillips while I watched it. From the opening scene (which seems sort of dreamy and quiet) to the intense capture of the captain, this movie was extremely well done. My only problem with the film was there's not much development with the characters trying to save Phillip. We never heard the names of men and women who work for the military Navy Seals, the ones who saved him. None are very developed nor do we learn more about them. Besides that, there weren't many popular cliches within the characters or plot which made it all feel more real. At first glance, Richard seems like a quiet man who's all business. As the story develops, so does his character. Hanks plays him purely for character driven purposes and, by the end of it, you're caring a lot about Phillips. The actors were probably my favorite part of this whole adaption.

The film has teams and crews of people working together to save one another, help out, and accomplish a goal. I could see a definite theme involving teamwork and so will audiences when they watch it. Teamwork must be done to accomplish a goal.

The audience demographic leans toward thriller fans and people interested in Phillips's story. I'm not super fond of Thrillers but this movie I enjoyed immensely. If someone is squeamish to blood, violence, or highly sensitive I would not recommend seeing this film. The scenes are quite intense with the pirates and could cause triggers. Personally I think this movie lies within a PG-13 MPAA rating, probably fourteen year olds and up would do well with the themes, violence, and language.

RATING: 4.5 stars out of 5