Captain Phillips: Steelbook Edition - 4K Blu-ray Review

Movie
Looking back a little over a decade I find that I still have an affinity for Captain Phillips. Back in 2013 I remember all of the controversy thrown up over who was the villain or hero here, with the crew of the Alabama freighter claiming that the real life Richard Phillips was negligent in his duties to keep them a proper distance away from the Somalian coast, while the Maersk corporation were standing behind Phillips and his account of the whole thing. And to be fair, we’ll probably ever really know the TRUTH here as each side were financially incentivized to denigrate the other (TLDR summary, the crew of the ship could ONLY collect significant financial damages IF Phillips and/or Maersk were found guilty of actual NEGLIGENCE, which meant that they definitely wanted the Captain to look bad, and at the same time Maersk would lose out monetarily if Captain Phillips actually was negligent, so it was in their best interest to back him). But at the end of the day, whatever the truth is, Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Identity) crafted a massively successful film that has stood the test of time (so far), and Sony has FINALLY released it in 4K UHD for us today.

Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) is a long time captain of Dutch freighter Alabama during the early late 2000’s and he’s heading out once more to carry a load of medical supplies and water across the horn of Africa for humanitarian aide. They’ve done this route a million times, but this was back in 2009 when Somalian pirates were raiding ships left and right. So far Captain Phillips and his crew had managed to evade or avoid entirely any pirate crews, but today was not their lucky day. A small group of 4 or 5 pirates managed to get past the meager defenses of the Alabama and actually take control of the ship. Luckily the officers managed to get the crew to safety in the Engine room before the boarding began, but the pirate captain Muse (Barkhad Abdi) is having none of this. His entire plan is to capture the crew so that his pirate “elders” can negotiate a ransom by the insurance companies who run the freight lines (back then, they weren’t sailing the high seas for treasure and booty, but simple insurance leverage by starving Somalian villagers).

When Phillips men turn the tables on Muse they negotiate a trade. They give the pirates 30 grand (which is peanuts compared to the millions they were hoping for of ransom) and the lifeboat to get back to land, and they let the crew go. Seems simple, and both sides are begrudgingly happy. Muse and his pirates get in the lifeboat, but at the last second grab Captain Phillips and make a break for it (still hoping to collect a ransom). Now it’s up to the U.S. navy, who has just barely arrived, to stage a daring rescue and bring back Captain Phillips alive.

I like to say that Captain Phillips is sort of two films in one, as the tonal shift of the second half is quite dramatically different than the first half. The first hour of the film is daring pirate invasion film, with Captain Phillips and his men doing their very best to thwart the pirates and stay alive. But the second half of the film changes directions rather quickly, shifting over to a “hostage negotiation” type of cation movie, with Navy Seals attempting a rescue of Captain Phillips who is on board the lifeboat with the pirates. Each half is fantastic, but Greengrass does a really solid job at fusing the two different tones of the film together making it seem cohesive, despite each half of the film feeling like it’s “different” than the other.

The flick is a nail biter from beginning to end, with Tom Hanks stepping outside of the vanity projects that he was prone to doing back then, and actually putting his heart and soul into the character. Whether you like Hanks or not, he did a great job as Phillips, and actually does an AMAZING job at the very end portraying PTSD shock when the Seals take him onboard their ship. Another kudos to Greengrass is that while I love his films in many ways, he was the progenitor of the modern day “shaky cam, quick cut edits” style of film making that had taken over the action landscape back in the day. Luckily for us Greengrass really tones down those tendencies of his, and gives us a smoother looking image that doesn’t jump around every half second.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for sustained intense sequences of menace, some violence with bloody images, and for substance use




4K Video: Video:

I’m not exactly sure if Sony is using the old 4K master from from the 2014 Blu-ray or if they struck a new master in the last decade (I couldn’t find any information in the Sony press release), but either way, the 4K UHD disc definitely stands head and shoulders over the 10 year old 1080p disc. Shot using a mixture of 35mm and 16 mm film (grain matched to the 35mm shots), Captain Phillips looks GORGEOUS in 4K UHD (I love the look of classic film stock in 4K). The film has a lightly green and teal tinge to it that is barely noticeable, and the fine detail improvements over the Blu-ray is quite noticeable. Especially in facial details (sweat, blood, grime),k and the night time shots during the latter half of the film really show off the Dolby Vision enhancements (less noise/grain spikes and deeper inkier black levels that show off better detail instead of crushing). Primary colors also show off a a bit of a boost too, with the bright orange of the lifeboat really popping, as well as the blue shirt and red shorts of the characters during the initial attack. At the end of the day, Sony took an already great Blu-ray and amped it up a good bit in the video department, showing us the glory of 4K and all of the little improvements that it provides.








Audio:

I gave the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track a 5/5 rating back in January of 2014 when I wrote my original review, so it’s kind of hard for me to give the new Atmos mix a HIGHER rating! But all joking aside, this supplants the 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix and expands upon it, giving us a wider sound stage, with more nuanced directional cues and the great addition of the overhead speakers. It’s not going to be night and day different than the 5.1 mix, but more of an evolution of the track with particular enhancements that expand the sound field to a more exciting experience. Gunshots and the roaring of the engine all pound you into the seat, and the surround activity is SUPERB. The rushing water and the creaks and pops of the aging freighter jump around all over the place, and even get some ambient overhead usage.







Extras:

• Commentary with Director Paul Greengrass
• Capturing Captain Phillips
• Trailer














Soooooooooo, 10 years later (or 10 years and 3 months to be exact, almost to the day) after seeing the Blu-ray for the first time, I have to still give the flick a solid thumbs up. Greengrass’s Captain Phillips may not be 100% accurate to the events (although the Seal Snipers triple tap near the end was supposedly SPOT ON), but it is one heck of a film. Sony’s 4K UHD looks and sounds great, adding a brand new 4K remaster, a new Dolby Atmos track, but sadly no new extras (the Blu-ray sports the same “meh” extras that we’ve had for the last 10 years). Overall, definitely recommended as an upgrade to our Blu-ray.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Catherine Keener, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali
Directed by: Paul Greengrass
Written by: Billy Ray
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DVS
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Sony
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 134 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 16th, 2024

Michael Boeker said:

I just checked my Kaleidescape account and I've owned this movie in 4K SDR since November of 2021. However, coinciding with the 4K physical disc release, Kaleidescape now has it available in 4K HDR. I wonder if there is any difference in the master that was used?

Click to expand...

Not sure. Sony didn't mention a new master in the press release, so my gut is telling me that this was using at least a couple year old master. Maybe even the same one as the Blu-ray. Cuz that was right around the time that Sony made a huge deal about making a 4K master for the future. I could be wrong, but it's possible they simply didn't apply HDR overlay on the master till they crafted the Home video release??? dunno, just spitballing