BEFORE: Back home from Atlantic City, and it's a little weird getting used to not eating at a buffet twice a day. I didn't win on the slots, or I should say I had a few small wins that were overshadowed by bigger losses. The slots just weren't paying out, and we guessed that this was due to the extremely tight margins the casinos are working with. Several A.C. casinos have closed in the past few months, and unless something changes, the trend may continue. It just seems to be a city in decline, with its business affected by the opening of other casinos in Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania. Hey, we did what we could, gambling in 5 casinos and eating at 3 buffets.
Tom Hanks carries over from "Saving Mr. Banks", and this was supposed to be a chain all about boats and going to sea, but already I'm having trouble linking to tomorrow's film. To me, this is sometimes a sign that I'm on the wrong track or I've made a bad choice, so I've got to think about this before I get too far into the chain. I don't want to tear down my plan for the last 43 films of the year, but I don't want to break the chain either.
AFTER: This was a really gripping story of a real hijacking incident, and I'm not surprised at all that it came from the same director as "United 93". It's fairly easy to draw a connection between the hijacked planes on 9/11 and a hijacked cargo ship.
And along the same lines as the passengers and crew on that airplane taking down the terrorists, the main character played by Tom Hanks also acts in ways that are noble, putting himself in jeopardy in ways small and large in order to secure the lives of his crewmen. This includes dealing with the hijackers at gunpoint while most of the crew stays hidden, offering them the money from the ship's safe, and eventually winding up in a lifeboat with them as a hostage.
It's gripping, it's thrilling and it's shocking at times, but I'm not sure how entertaining it ends up being. It's not really a film I'd seek out for escapism, or something I'd favor over a sci-fi film or a superhero film. But I'm watching it because it seemed important, it got 6 Oscar nominations (but none for Hanks or the director, hmm...)
Don't have much else to add tonight, I'm a bit stumped by this one. Perhaps my mind is somewhere else these days, it's tough for me to concentrate on an entire film, let alone review it.
Also starring Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali, Catherine Keener, Michael Chernus, Corey Johnson, Chris Mulkey. Yul Vazquez, Angus MacInnes (last seen in "Force 10 from Navarone").
RATING: 5 out of 10 fire hoses
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