Captain Phillips (2013)

Tom Hanks has had so many iconic roles, but which one gets our vote as the best Tom Hanks movies?

The Terminator franchise is moving forward with a sixth film that ignores most of the franchise. The sequel has taken a big step forward to production with a crucial hiring.

Tom Hanks is just a phenomenal actor. This much is pretty much undisputed by anybody who's paying attention. Part of the reason that he is so great is that he has an uncanny ability to simply inhabit any role he takes on.

People often think fame and money are directly linked. They’re not. High end actors whose names appear in big letters on movie posters make an outlandish money. Those who play supporting roles can earn nice little paychecks, but it can be years between these parts.

Zero. That’s how many Oscars, combined, were won by American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, Captain Phillips, Philomena and Nebraska.

As captivating as it was to follow the story in headlines, the reality is that what actually happened doesn’t have good narrative flow and as it unfolds breaks some very important storytelling rules.

My argument is that the category should have shifted from five nominees to three. That would increase competition. Imagine how tight this year’s Oscar race would be if Academy voters could only choose between Gravity, 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle? Now THAT’s a race!

Last year’s Best Adapted Screenplay contenders at the Academy Awards competed in one of the most competitive categories of the night, with movies like Life of Pi, Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook going head to head, but by the time it was all over the literal Best Picture had won.

Today we feature Best Supporting Actor. This is a thornier pack than last year, when all the nominees were previous winners, limiting the amount of actual competition between participants (Christoph Waltz ultimately won). This year there are no previous winners, three first-time nominees, and two second-time honorees.

We can spend weeks reading the tea leaves – and because the Oscar ceremony is still more than a month away, we likely will waste all of that time. My guess is that Hanks split his attention between two performances, and ended up on the short end of the nominee stick in both instances.

With all due respect to the other four nominees, it would be a huge, cosmic joke if anyone other than Cuaron were to take home this prize – and every other trophy for directing – this year.

In the narrative categories, few of these nominees can be called surprising as just about all of the above have received critical praise and Oscar buzz. The dark horse contender in the mix is Peter Berg's Lone Survivor, which has had a soft open over Christmas and will expand next week.

The PGA nominees serve a dual purpose, as Oscar trackers view them “as indicators of which films have momentum heading into the Academy Award nominations, which will be announced Jan. 16.”

Blue Jasmine will reopen this weekend in 300 theaters across the US, while Captain Phillips's rerelease will begin on January 15th, 2014, in 1,000 theaters. Notably that means the Tom Hanks vehicle will touch down the day before the Academy Award nominations are to be announced.

SAG isn’t always right. Last year, the group accurately predicted that Ben Affleck’s Argo would have a big night at the Oscars. But the year prior, SAG went with The Help over the eventual Best Picture Oscar winner, The Artist.

The American Film Institute tends to play a little more fast and loose with its annual end of the year best movies list when compared against other organizations. Usually, there’s at least one selection odd enough to cause a double take. Last year, for example, more than a few heads were turned by the surprising selection of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.

The anonymous source taking Phillips to task also happens to be part of a group suing Maersk following the events of the infamous hijacking. The group – consisting of 11 crew members – is suing the company for nearly $50 million claiming “willful, wonton and conscious disregard for their safety” on the part of the captain.

Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks are the stars of the two biggest movies in the United States right now, Gravity and Captain Phillips, and both movies put their stars through the wringer. So after you've seen Bullock fight off space debris and Hanks deal with Somali pirates, why not watch the two cut loose and dance on a giant piano on British television?

There was big continued pull on audiences from Alfonso Cuaron's sci-fi thriller Gravity this weekend. After setting a record for the highest October opening last weekend, the movie held on strong, dropping just 20% and maintaining a death grip on the number one spot. Adding $44 million this weekend, it handily crossed the $100 million mark winding up at $123 million domestic and nearing the $200 million level internationally.

Last weekend, Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity exploded out of the gate en route to a $55 million weekend for the record books. By Sunday evening, the film had carded the largest opening in Sandra Bullock’s career, the largest opening in George Clooney’s career and more importantly, the largest opening in the history of October. It now seems poised to break even more records this weekend.

This week we're launching onto the high seas and being very, very clear about the location of our seat inside the lifeboat, as we review the tense new Paul Greengrass thriller Captain Phillips. You might have seen Matt Patches' tweet used to promote the movie, but find out how the rest of us felt! All that plus your answers to our lightning round question about movies based on true stories

Looking to Captain Phillips, ACOD, and Machete Kills for inspiration, we've pulled together a selection of inspiring biopics, wild family-comedies, and over-the-top action flicks.

Greengrass’ first film since 2010’s Green Zone and based on a screenplay written by Billy Ray (The Hunger Games), Captain Phillips recounts the thrilling true story from April 2009 when a band of Somali pirates, led by a man named Muse (Abdi), attempted to hijack the container ship MV Maersk Alabama.

How did Tom Hanks wind up on that boat in Captain Phillips? Well, it all started when he graduated from the University of Alabama and a military recruiter asked him if he had ever given any thought to his future

Feeling a little under the weather. Whatever Ebola-like virus Little Rotten Week was carrying around, well she shipped it in my direction. When this ends up being the contagion that takes down the planet, we can consider her patient zero. See you all when the chaos subsides. While we wait for the end of the world let’s talk pirates and machetes

Captain Phillips stars Tom Hanks as the Boston mariner who had to keep his cool for the safety of his crew when Somali pirates overtook their boat. In the latest clip released by Sony Pictures, you can see that terrifying moment, and the beginnings of Phillips’ and his crew’s ordeal.

With the New York Film Festival now in full swing, Gravity on its way to theaters and some release date shifts for Foxcatcher and Grace of Monaco taking them out of this year's race, there are so many different reasons to be excited about Oscar season right now.

Proving once again that true stories with foregone conclusions can be just as gripping as a conventional thriller, Paul Greengrass's tense, overwhelming Captain Phillips faithfully, fiercely recounts the siege of the American container ship Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates in April of 2009.

Mick knew the horrors that awaited him on that ride, but it was Saturday afternoon. He was sick of waiting, sick of looking over his shoulder every time he stepped on any mode of transportation. Besides, there weren’t any kids on this boat. On a weekend at Disneyland, that was practically unheard of. He needed to get it over with now.

Welcome to fall movie season, where it's all about awards bait if you look in one direction (hello, August: Osage County!) and all about oddball blockbusters if you look in another (happy to see you, Riddick). Like any other time for movie releases, autumn is all about what you make of it, whether that's catching the three-hour French drama about lesbians or counting down the days until The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. But if you want an advance look at which films are begging for awards and which are best paired with a giant tub of popcorn, look no further