Captain Phillips/American Hustle

Captain Phillips (2013)

93% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 235 reviews)

Runtime: 134 minutes

Directed by: Paul Greengrass

Starring: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat A. Ali

From: Columbia Pictures

American Hustle (2013)

93% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 241 reviews)

Runtime: 138 minutes

Directed by: David O. Russell (no relation, I swear)

Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner

From: Columbia Pictures

Tonight, I close out talking about the movie marathon I had on Saturday by talking about the two more mainstream films I saw for the first time. First, Captain Phillips.

To steal the plot description from the IMDb: “Captain Phillips is a multi-layered examination of the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates. It is - through director Paul Greengrass's distinctive lens - simultaneously a pulse-pounding thriller, and a complex portrait of the myriad effects of globalization. The film focuses on the relationship between the Alabama's commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips (two time Academy Award®-winner Tom Hanks), and the Somali pirate captain, Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who takes him hostage. Phillips and Muse are set on an unstoppable collision course when Muse and his crew target Phillips' unarmed ship; in the ensuing standoff, 145 miles off the Somali coast, both men will find themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control.”

I have to say first that while I remember hearing about the case as it happened (it was the first act of piracy against an American ship since the early 19th century) but I knew little of the details. That allowed for me to be engrossed in the story as I did not know what would happen next. I know that not everything in the movie was 100% factual, but I figured that beforehand.

I'll be honest and say that I usually don't seek out the films of Paul Greengrass. His trademark of shaky-cam way too quick editing BS is NOT for me, as I've mentioned many times before. But, if that was present in the movie, I didn't even notice it. That should say a lot about how this tale is told and how interesting it was for me. The newbie actors were great as the villains (while Abdi apparently is broke as of today, he did deserve the Oscar nomination he got) and I'd say that Hanks also deserved a nomination, which he didn't get but he was great as the title character. As others have noted, the final 10 or so minutes you see the Captain on screen... that was a tremendous bit of acting, and I'll leave it at that.

This is a very intense sale with a lot of suspense (part of the film is the crew of the ship hiding out from the pirates, and all that ensued) and you also get empathy... even from the villains, who come across as pawns in a bigger game. This will be on my Top 10 list of 2013 (coming out in a few days, or that's the plan), for sure.

Now, onto American Hustle, which I won't say as much flowery things about. To steal the plot description from Letterboxd: "A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most stunning scandals to rock our nation, American Hustle tells the story of brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld, who along with his equally cunning and seductive partner Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild FBI agent Richie DiMaso. DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that's as dangerous as it is enchanting. Carmine Polito is the mayor of Camden, the passionate, volatile, New Jersey political operator caught between the con-artists and Feds. Irving's unpredictable wife Rosalyn could be the one to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down."

The rest of this review is taken from my Letterboxd review. Note that this is only barely based on the real life Abscam operation done by the FBI, done by the director who once called Lily Tomlin "a c*nt". You can read about Abscam on Wikipedia or other places. As for the next time I'll be back, it'll be Thursday night.

How do I put this best... I don't usually seek out the films of David O. Russell (no relation). Besides how he does movies, the way that he treats the talent who work for him... a HUGE turn-off for me.

Still, I tried to give this a fair chance, despite the backlash that came out after receiving a whole lot of praise. Well, I have to agree with the backlash. Right away, seeing a bunch of awful characters treating each other horribly gave me pause but I was hoping that I would end up finding them very interesting and fun to watch despite them being morally repugnant. After all, I enjoy films like The Wolf of Wall Street and Goodfellas and those have characters you'd never call heroes.

However, by the end I was turned off by this long rambling mess of a movie; I would have much rather preferred reading the actual events of the Abscam operation rather than this wannabe Scorsese thing that only barely is based on that real-life situation.

Sure, the 70's setting was cool and I enjoyed the soundtrack and the outfits (especially most of the shirts that Amy Adams wore...) but when you can't stand any of the characters and they love to ramble on incessantly and the way they act is nonsensical, I am not going to enjoy this and all the awards this has won is just baffling to me. I absolutely do not understand it.

I can tell you that I could NOT stand the character that Jennifer Lawrence played. Besides it being miscast, in real life I can't stand Lawrence and her fake dumb act... or maybe it's a legit dumb thing, I don't know... point is, that was such a grating character no matter who would have played her and I don't care if that was supposed to be how she came across, it was a huge turn-off and I groaned whenever she popped back up in the story.

I have to say, after this movie it'll likely be a long time before I feel like checking out the work of the director who happens to share the same surname with me.