Captain Phillips (2013 Nominee)

Captain Phillips tells the true story of the 2009 hijacking of the US container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates. 

To me, Captain Phillips should be entitled Why didn't Tom Hanks get a nomination?!?!?!  His performance starts out good.  And keeps getting better and better.  The final scene is an actor's masterpiece.  Very little words are even used in this scene but his acting is like too good.  The movie was over and I looked at Tim like "What the crap did we just watch?"  It was, to me, the most surprising film of the entire year.  I started it under the impression that it would be your generic action film…. I WAS WRONG! See this movie.  Until you do, you are doing yourself an injustice.  

The trailers for Captain Phillips made it look like a solid but typical thriller so we didn’t catch this in theater because we didn’t expect it to be Best Picture material. We should’ve known better. Director Paul Greengrass has proven himself time and time before as a master with his expert handling of the Bourne sequels and United 93 and we should have expected that we were in for something special with Captain Phillips. The film’s characterizations go far deeper than good guys and bad guys- the pirates are products of their oppressive environment with little other opportunity to provide for themselves and their families; to them, it’s just a hard day’s work in a dog eat dog world. According to most reports, it turns out that the real Captain Phillips was much more arrogant and foolhardy than Hanks’ depiction, and I don’t even care because this film is all his. The tension is already nail-biting as the pirates approach, board the ship and search for the crew but the film doesn’t truly hit its peak until Phillips is trapped alone with the pirates in a lifeboat and the film hurtles toward its unforgettable climax. The last 20 minutes of Captain Phillips alone should have granted him a Best Actor nomination, but he was foolishly locked out of the most competitive of this year’s categories. Their loss--- nevertheless, Captain Phillips demands your time and is not to be missed. Suspense-wise, this film is this year’s Zero Dark Thirty and is easily one of my favorites of the year.

Tom Hanks claimed that all the interior lifeboat scenes were filmed inside a scale model that was actually on water at all times, resulting in him being vomited on by crew members in the cramped space.

UKMTO Officer: Maersk Alabama, you should alert your crew, get your fire hoses ready. Chances are they're just fishermen.

Captain Richard Phillips: They're not here to fish.