Showing on Amazon Prime, we came across the great Tom Hanks as sea captain Captain Phillips. We love his work and he tries his best to make each character he plays different from each other. At first you see Tom Hanks the actor, then somehow along the way, you forget about him and you can now focus on his character. He was great here as the Captain Phillips who tries to salvage whatever was left with his crew and of how he tries to save them against the pirates even if he was held at gun point.
Tom Hanks is Tom Hanks and I we can't say anything more than that he is great. What surprised us here are the actors who played the pirates. I was expecting shoddy acting here if compared to Tom but boy they held up their part well, so well in fact that we actually they may have been pirates in real life. Not the Jack Sparrow kind of pirates, but pirates pirates, for real. We love Barkhad Abdi in his portrayal of Muse, the out of luck pirate whom we have connected in the film.
Muse was a great pirate is you ask us, he was kinda intelligent and witty for a pirate. While his comrades were just after short gain, he was into the long haul. He staged everything very well and he made us believe that he was in control of the hostage situation.
Other actors were complementary to Captain Phillips character and was equally great along side that of the pirates, making the whole film watchable. The storyline is thin, the story telling was a bit long, but thanks to the directorial skills of Paul Greegrass, it wasn't boring for a drama thriller.
This movie may not be in the leagues of Forrest Gump or Philadelphia for Tom Hanks, but it can be at par with Big and Castaway.
