It’s Tom Hanks versus a gang of gun-toting Somalians in Captain Phillips, a movie based on the Maersk Alabama hijacking of 2009. The pirates are ugly and annoying, but director Paul Greengrass does a notable job of keeping his audience on its toes.

Suspense arises eighteen minutes in and doesn’t let up from there, though the plot takes a turn near the halfway point. Richard Phillips, portrayed here as a hero, wrote a book about the incident but the true story probably isn’t nearly as epic as this.

my rating : 4 of 5

2013