Double Review: Captain Phillips & Gravity

Today, I'll look at 2 hit films from October. Unfortunately, I missed out on the following films: Runner Runner, Machete Kills, The Fifth Estate, and The Wizard of Oz 3D, and will not be able to review them. I am hoping to see Carrie very soon.

Captain Phillips:
In 2009, Richard Phillips, captain of the MV Maersk Alabama, and his crew are travelling around Somali waters, when they are boarded by pirates, leading by a young man named Muse. Phillips then must risk his life to save his crew and get the ship under control. This true-life hostage story is based on Phillips' 2010 autobiography A Captain's Duty. Tom Hanks gives one of his best performances in years as Phillips, and gives a very realistic portrayal of the man. Catherine Keener makes a cameo as Phillips' wife. Barkhad Abdi gives a fantastic portrayal of the pirate leader Muse. He's a tad sympathetic, but not so much so it takes away from his menace. He has received Oscar buzz due to his performance. David Warshofsky appears as Mike Perry, the ships' chief engineer. Michael Chernus plays Shane Murphy, the ship's first officer. Max Martini has a small role as a Navy SEAL commander. The film is mesmerizing, and it's Hanks and Abdi's performances that really make the movie. It's one of the most intense movies of the past 5 years, it has you on the edge of your seat for the entire runtime, and it's actually very accurate. Paul Greengrass (director of The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone, United 93, Bloody Sunday) knows how to make an excellent thriller and creates an incredibly tense environment in the film, and knows how to shoot a great action sequence. Billy Ray (writer of The Hunger Games, State of Play, Flightplan, Shattered Glass, Breach, Volcano) adapted the screenplay from the novel, and this is undoubtedly his best work. He writes some really great dialogue and created some great chemistry between characters. Captain Phillips is undoubtedly one of the best biographical films of the past 10 years, and it's one of the most entertaining and well-acted thrillers in recent memory. 5/5 stars.

Gravity:
Dr. Ryan Stone and Lt. Matt Kowalski are in space with their colleague Shariff Dasari on a mission aboard the space shuttle Explorer. Unfortunately, a cloud of space debris shreds their shuttle and the Hubble space telescope, which they were repairing. Stone and Kowalski must survive outer space and try to reach a nearby space shuttle while they are running out of oxygen and time. Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien) directs this extremely tense and very realistic space thriller. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney give great performances as Stone and Kowalski, and I'm not even a huge fan of either one. Ed Harris and Paul Sharma have small voice-over roles in the film. I have to say, the film is one of the most realistic depictions of space in film I've ever seen. There is no sound in space, but, funny enough, the sound design is one of the most excellent aspects of the movie. Most of the film, the only sounds you hear are the voices of the astronauts and the sound of them breathing, and that's actually the only things you can hear in space. The cinematography is another excellent part of the film, it incorporates some interesting camera angles: it goes from first-person points of view, wide shots, up-close shots, etc. It creates a sense of claustrophobia at times, and at others, a sense that the characters are lost in a vast and endless environment, but that actually works for the movie. The music by Steven Price, although there's very little until the end credits, is excellent. With this film, Cuaron once again proves he is one of the best science fiction directors out there today. Gravity is one of the best films of the year, and one of the best space films of the modern age. 4.5/5 stars.
 (Images: Wikipedia)