Captain Phillips (12A, 134 mins)

Captain Phillips (12A, 134 mins)

Director: Paul Greengrass

4 stars

In April 2009 the Maersk Alabama, a commercial freighter captained by the American Richard Phillips, was sailing from Oman to Kenya, a journey which involved charting the perilous, pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia.

This stirring dramatisation of the real-life hijacking that followed stars Tom Hanks as Captain Phillips, a family man and extremely capable seaman. It has all the trappings of a great thriller, utterly gripping but without the need to resort to action in the Die Hard sense.

Early scenes are a little for the benefit of the audience, as though Phillips would need to be shown the route by one of his officers. But once the expositional stuff is out of the way, the build up to the initial pirate incursion is pin-sharp in its expertise. Phillips and his crew manage to fend them off at first, but they'll be back, even more determined than before.

When they do finally gain access to the ship, tensions escalate even further, as crew members try to stay hidden and Phillips tries his best to get the pirates off as quickly and with as little trouble as possible. Played resolutely by Hanks, Captain Phillips comes across as a man of intelligence and compassion, shown early on as a stickler for procedure and security, but with the safety of his crew always his primary concern.

But the pirates are in it for the big money that comes with ransom demands, and unusually we also get to spend some time with them before the raid, taking in their preparations and the tensions between them and the notion that they're just doing a job under the orders of Somali warlords. So while it's never intended that we remotely side with them, they're not simply evil Africans. It helps considerably that the actors playing the pirates are thoroughly convincing, with Barkhad Abdi as their leader, Muse, a particular standout.

What is ultimately a fairly straightforward situation means there's a bit too much middle, when the action switches to a more confined space and events that could have been covered in more economical ways take up a good half hour of unnecessary screen time and lead to repetition and a little impatience.

But generating gnawing fear and apprehension is the name of the game and at the times that count, Captain Phillips is a tension machine, arm-gripping in its effectiveness and packing a stunning emotional payoff.

Director Paul Greengrass has consistently demonstrated throughout his career his complete mastery of physically orchestrating actors for maximum impact, and he's almost always able to find a way to change up a gear when needed. Add in the best performance from Hanks possibly since Cast Away and this is a rare treat for grownup audiences.

See it if you liked: United 93, A Hijacking, Argo

Escape Plan (15, 115 mins)

Director: Mikael Håfström

3 stars

Sylvester Stallone stars in this slice of action daftness as a breakout expert who finds the weak points in prison security. Asked to test out a new top secret facility, he finds himself banged up in a glass box, under constant surveillance and with no escape seeming possible, realising someone has set him up. Luckily his, and the film's, secret weapon comes in the shape of fellow inmate Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the pair cook up an escape plan. Aside from brief moments in two Expendables movies, we've been waiting 30 years for a proper Stallone-Schwarzenegger match-up, though for all the nostalgia this provides, it's sometimes just a wee bit tired. Don't come for the banter, which is largely dire, or even the action, which is uninspired, but the mechanics of the escape plan are fairly diverting. It's incredibly silly, no doubt, and that's a good thing, but it's the sort of malarkey that should rattle along in rip-roaring style, not lumber for almost two hours towards a generic action finale. Mostly though it's about the pleasures to be had in watching two of the most iconic stars of our time share the screen, and that's just about good enough.

See it if you liked: Lock Up, Face Off, The Expendables

Enough Said (12A, 93 mins)

Director: Nicole Holofcener

4 stars

Masseuse Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a divorced single mother, takes on a new client in Catherine Keener at the same time as she meets Albert (James Gandolfini) at a party. As Eva and Albert go on gently amusing dates and start to fall for each other, Enough Said delights. These are good people, pleasant to spend time with in a drama laced with self-deprecating and age-appropriate conversations and humour. Not content with just trundling along nicely though, writer-director Nicole Holofcener throws up some unexpected developments. As is the way in movie-world, it's the kind of thing a quick and honest conversation might fix, and the film does hit something of a sticky patch about an hour in as contrivances lead to unconvincing motivations and behaviour. But for the most part this is sweet and highly engaging, with lovely, easy-flowing performances and dialogue, and it's a reminder of just how much Gandolfini will be missed.

See it if you liked: Please Give, Sideways, Friends with Money

Prince Avalanche (15, 93 mins)

Director: David Gordon Green

3 stars

After some unexpected diversions into crude big budget comedy with Pineapple Express and Your Highness, writer-director David Gordon Green returns to his low key drama roots with this slightly oddball indie. Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch impress as workers (and potential future brothers-in-law) repairing and painting long stretches of forest road in Texas, and the goofy conversations they have during their long days can border on the surreal. This is offset by the poignancy of encounters with people whose homes were destroyed in wildfires and, perhaps as a consequence of their isolated jobs sending them stir crazy, it develops into a deeper probing of the ups and downs of their personal lives. Real insight can be found there, but the overall sense of slightness (and strangeness) is often too much to overcome.