Captain Phillips (2013)

[Edgy MD]

Didn't find a thread on it, but saw Sage rip in one or two other threads. My wife rented it two or three times and I finally sat down with it. What did you think?

[Edgy MD]

Well, yeah, this was another pointless exercise, except as bait for another Oscar for Tom Hanks. The real story is that of the pirates coerced into doing something criminal lest something worse be done to them, their families, and their villages. Hanks only real backstory/character development before the crisis hits is his wife driving him to the boat and they're worried about their kids, not taking school seriously, not ready for the competitive world of the future. He's US! Or something.

Then bam! He's somehow in the Indian Ocean, without any explanation how they got across the Atlantic and around the horn of Africa so fast. The pirates use their sonar to spot a convoy of ships playing safety-in-numbers, and stupid Captain Phillips is all alone miles behind, going it alone, and you start to get the idea that Phillips isn't exactly the brightest barnacle on the hull.

He berates his men for their cowardice but you know, part of your job as captain is to instill your men with confidence through your sheer and obvious competence. But it's not jumping out me.

What he has going for him is he keeps his head when tempers flare. And he never attacks the pirates, believing he can somehow reason (or bullshit) his way out of his ship being boarded, and then himself being kidnapped. But he's not above setting them up.

If I want to see miserable Somalis quixotically going up against the might of the US military, I've got Black Hawk Down. At least that didn't try to play the Tom Hanks-is-a-stand-in-for-every-decent-American-of-a-certain-age-and-solid-value-system card.

Do a comedy.

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Edgy MD wrote: Do a comedy.

Bachelor Party 2 - Rick Gassko having been married and divorced four times already prepares the tie the knot for the fifth time. His friends try to rekindle the old times in the only way they know how, a bachelor party in Vegas!