Though a true story was a bit disappointed with the film.Seemed a bit silly in many parts. Al Pacino was good but underused while Barkhad Abdi was probably the best character though every time you saw him I couldn't help but think he was playing his Captain Phillips role!

I wish I could write a better review of The Pirates Of Somalia. That is certainly one troubled land for the past 30 or so years. When the action of this film takes place in 2008 it was hardly even a country, a geographical expression at best.Years ago when Lebanon was in a similar state and to some extent still is I read that President Gemayel controlled maybe 10 blocks square around the presidential palace in Beirut. That about sums up the situation in Somalia with different warlords controlling a piece of turf over a country a lot bigger than Lebanon.Doing a paper on Somalia at the University of Toronto, young Jay Bahadur played here by Evan Peters wants a journalistic career and seeks the advice of a legendary reporter. Playing said reporter Al Pacino basically says seek out a subject and write. Make sure it's something no one else has already covered to death.Being a country with a nice long sea coast, any number of these Somalian warlords have gone into piracy for profit. At the same time that Bahadur was gathering material for his Somalia story, the world watched as some of these pirates took Captain Phillips hostage.Sad to say that the nature of that story a spine tingling adventure sort of wrote itself for the screen with Tom Hanks giving an acclaimed performance. I wish that this one had been juiced up a bit or at least 20 to 30 minutes had been cut out. The pace of The Pirates Of Somalia is agonizingly slow at times.Al Pacino really stands out. No doubt put it the film for a little box office juice, he also picks up the pace with a quirky performance. He's in at the beginning and toward the end. I wish we could have worked him in more.The Pirates Of Somalia is a story that needed telling. But fortify yourself with a bit of caffeine before watching.

The movie dedicates from 3 - 5 minutes of dialogue to explain something of Somalia history, culture and situation. Throughout the rest of it, it tells the story of a prepotent journalist trying to make a career out of another country situation. The main character is just annoying and futile. Native actors made good performances. Important story told through a bad script.

I found this film to be very intriguing. When I started it, I was expecting a documentary type film on pirates in Somalia made famous by the terrific film "Captain Phillips".About 10 minutes in, I realized this was going to be a lot more then an action/Drama film on the exploits of Somalian Pirates. What you get in this way better then average movie is a man who yearns to be a published writer/journalist. He tries his hand at some very uninteresting subject matter and then sees the news reports in the Hijacking of the cargo ship "Maersk Alabama" by Somalie pirates and, after some research, that NO Western journalist has ever truly entered the world of Piracy in that region of Africa.He is Canadian (Evan Peters who plays real life journalist Jay Bahadur) and gets his parents to finance an adventure to a life completely unknown to him in Somalia.Without giving more of the film away, I can say that the true elements of how Piracy got its start in this poor and almost forgotten African nation and more importantly WHY it happens to this day. It gives the viewer a really different perspective on the story of these proud people who have a history of culture and used to settle disputes with poetry, not violence. I enjoyed the way the protagonist explores the realities and history of the Somalie people rather then exploit the violence often used by the very nature of piracy.This is a must see for anyone who is interested in the culture and reasons behind why piracy is a way of life for peoples of this region.A very well done film. Definitely recommend.