I am not known to be the biggest fan of Tom Hanks, but I have to say that Captain Phillips has changed all that.

The story follows the hijacking of an American cargo ship near Somalia by pirates which actually happened. I am sure a great many parts of the films have been teased by Hollywood to provide a ripping tale (I remember the actual story being somewhat more mundane from the newspapers), but taken as pure entertainment the film is great.

Hanks gave an admirable performance leaving a lot of of his all-American-Boy schmaltz on the sidelines, his rendering of Captain Phillips was highly believable and evoked great sympathy.

The irony of half the american fleet surrounding a small life-raft was not lost on me and I’m sure I detected a few of the musical themes from Team America: World Police in there! But then I suppose that’s just Americans isn’t it. This is probably my only criticism I guess, all in all a very watchable film.