In Captain Phillips, the most unexpected of action thrillers to star Tom Hanks, the widely-celebrated actor plays the cargo ship Captain Richard Phillips whose vessel — the Maersk Alabama (a gargantuan hauler of payload that includes food for the United Nations Food Programme) — gets seized by Somali pirates.

Once upon a time (in 2009) this action was based on a real-life event that played across international news with a different twist and an external view. Directed by shaky cam-and-thrill extraordinaire Paul Greengrass (Matt Damon’s last two Bourne movies and United 93), adapted by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass, State of Play) from Phillips’ own non-fiction book A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS and Dangerous Days at Sea, this cinematic version succeeds in another domain: creating a tense, near-live, human drama that doesn’t paint faces or brand enemies in black and white.

Captain Phillips’s climax, though slightly overblown with two colossal armed Navy ships dwarfing a small orange lifeboat — is a testament to American muscle in the world’s open waters. In contrast, the Somalis we see are a population of emaciated males, who chew khat (a plant that helps suppress appetite and induces euphoria), have easy access to arms and speedboats, and work for the local faction’s leader. It is easy to assume that they have the short end of the stick, even if they do make off with the goods from Alabama.

Hanks is the one we should be getting attached to, and we do — right from his all-too-human, unguarded, first frames with his screen-wife (Katherine Keener). The Somalis led by ‘skinny’ Musa (outstanding debutant Barkhad Abdi) get as much, if not more, screen-time, and this creates an emotional and all-too-human conundrum. Do we root for the good guys or pray that the desperate pirates come out of this with their lives intact?

Greengrass films the chase, invasion and occupation with real-world tension. Even though the climax unfortunately buckles under the macho power of the armed forces, it is nonetheless a bonafide Oscar contender, especially with Hank’s last minute recoil post his rescue.

Seeing Hanks in a state of unquestionably authentic shock is one of the few gems of cinematic history. If only the last quarter would have been better handled, Hanks’ image would have stayed with us forever.

Released by Columbia Pictures, Captain Phillips is rated PG-13 for threats by firearms, human hostility and anxiety.

The famous bullied girl-turned-blood-drenched killing queen from 1976 is back with a younger cast and restrained approach in 2013. And the result is half good.

Adapted from Stephen King’s novel and the remake by Brian De Palma, this Carrie has Chloë Moretz as the social outcast Carrie White who is objectified as a weirdo by her school and abused and oppressed at home by her religious fanatic mother Margaret (Julianne Moore). So when Carrie is pushed a little too far, all hell literally breaks loose.

Carrie begins with a tastefully executed sequence of Margaret giving birth alone in her house. Her relationship with her daughter oscillates drastically between love and hate, and given the way we are initially introduced to them, it’s not the least bit surprising.

Time passes and Carrie reaches her final year of high school with a feel of prom and graduation in the air. But she looks at the hustle and bustle of school life with awe and fear, never mingling. Like all repressed or bullied kids, she comes under the full focus of the mean Chris Hargensen’s (Portia Doubleday) cruelty radar.

Ignored by her mother, Carrie panics while the other girls taunt and chant at her. She is saved by her gym teacher (Judy Greer) and the girls are punished, but the incident becomes a catalyst and Carrie starts to manifest her dormant psychic powers. Eventually, she stands up to her mother and even manages to get a dress and a date to attend the prom.

Director Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry) makes Carrie a thorough psychological drama with telekinesis and revenge as side orders. The narrative stays close to King’s novel and keeps it straight till the blood and gore climax that comes without the expected horror.

Released by Sony and Screengems, Carrie is rated ‘R’ for blood, gore and teenage-angst drama. — Farheen Jawaid