Rush to See Captain Phillips

We recently saw what have to be the two best movies of the year. Both are thrilling, non-stop excitement. They are Rush and Captain Phillips.

Rush, which is directed by Ron Howard, is the story of the battle between two Formula 1 race car drivers, Niki Lauda and James Hunt, for the world championship. While there have been other movies which have tried to capture the excitement of Formula 1 racing (Grand Prix, starring James Garner, comes to mind), no movie, until now, has made you feel what it must be like to experience the thrill and the danger of driving at speeds in excess of 170 mph around treacherous curves and in the rain. Rush does that and more. The movie captures the personalities of the two men as they react to that danger and as they interact with one another in the face of unimaginable adversity..

Lauda (played to perfection by Daniel Bruhl ) is a rigid Austrian, who insists on going by the rules. On the other hand, Hunt is a playboy, who drinks champagne before a big race.  Chris Hemsworth  plays Hunt, whose wife, Suzy, eventually left him for the actor, Richard Burton, who was on leave from Elizabeth Taylor. Hemsworth is best known for his role as Thor in the Avengers' series.

If Ron Howard does not win the Academy Award for his direction of this movie, something is definitely wrong with the selection process.

Speaking of the Oscars, Tom Hanks definitely deserves a nod for best actor for his virtuoso performance as the real-life Captain Phillips in the movie of the same name. The docu-drama details the mostly true story of the capture of a merchant ship carrying relief supplies by Somali pirates off the coast of Africa. Hanks, it seems like, is in every scene and definitely carries it off better than any other actor could. Of course, this is why he already has two Oscars.