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March is Women's History Month!

Bob And Linda Read Internet Movie Reviews, Part Eight: Captain Phillips

This year, we wanted to look back at the nine best picture nominees and remind ourselves — and you — that reactions to film are complicated, hilariously varied and wonderfully individual. So we looked over every comment for every nominee at RottenTomatoes.com, and we brought you some of our favorites. We'll be rolling these out between now and the Oscars, and today, we look at Captain Phillips. (Many thanks to my dear pal Bob Mondello and rad NPR Multimedia whizzes Claire O'Neill and Kainaz Amaria. As you will see as these unfold, we had a lot of fun.) Check out our previous looks at Dallas Buyers Club, American Hustle, Her, Gravity, Philomena, Nebraska and Wolf of Wall Street.

Bob's sincere Internet movie review: Director Paul (the Bourne flicks) Greengrass being an old hand at ratcheting up tension, the first half of this modern-day piracy thriller plays the way you'd expect. Then Tom Hanks' title character gets trapped with the pirates in a tiny enclosed lifeboat, and the film gets at the emotional toll of terrorism in a way few movies have.

Linda's sincere Internet movie review: It's a really exciting action movie, and while the last act gets a little bit standard-issue military, as it were, this Tom Hanks performance is harder than it looks, and Barkhad Abdi is really fantastic as a young pirate.

Know your stuff before Oscars day!

  • An interview with director Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks
  • An interview with Barkhad Abdi
  • Bob's full review of the film
  • An episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour discussing the film
  • A look at the real Captain Phillips and the true story
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