Captain Phillips

It was just another day on the job for 53-year-old Richard Phillips, Captain of the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship carrying food and agricultural materials for the World Food Program among other things, until armed Somali pirates climbed aboard using a ladder they hooked to the ship’s side. Despite the captain’s $30,000 offer, all the cash he has on hand, to call it a day, the gate of pirates opts to hunker down and wait for millions of dollars in insurance money. But as a U.S. Naval vessel closes in, the pirates take off in a lifeboat to ransom their most valuable asset, Captain Phillips, culminating in a tense five-day stand-off.

David Ehrlich of Film.com writes, “Captain Phillips is not only a masterful action movie that breathlessly and believably re-stages a tense standoff at sea, but a resonant portrait of systemized financial imbalance trickling down into the water. While this is arguably director Paul Greengrass’ best film, it’s almost certainly his most urgent.” BoxOffice.com predicts that the movie will open at $20M.

Rating: PG-13 // Genre: Action, Biography, Drama // Runtime: 2 hr. and 14 min. // Starring: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman // Directed by: Paul Greengrass // Based Upon the Book by: Richard Phillips, Stephan Talty // Screenplay by: Billy Ray // Produced by: Michael De Luca Productions, Scott Rudin Productions, Translux, Trigger Street Productions // Distributed by: Sony Pictures Releasing, Columbia Pictures