Overview
On Aug. 21, 2015, the world watches in stunned silence as the media reports a thwarted terrorist attack on a train that's bound for Paris -- an attempt prevented by three young Americans traveling together through Europe. The heroic and courageous actions of Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone help to save the lives of more than 500 passengers on board.
Reviews
"An instinctual act of remarkable heroism is afforded the least remarkable effort of director Clint Eastwood’s long career.."
Read the full review here: http://screen-space.squarespace.com/reviews/2018/2/8/the-1517-to-paris.html
This be bad.
'The 15:17 to Paris' portrays the an event from 2015. The decision by director Clint Eastwood to cast the real life people as themselves was, in my opinion, a poor call. I obviously have nothing against the guys, quite the opposite of course, but they simply cannot act. It's kinda painful watching them, I gotta be honest.
I will say I didn't actually know that was the case before viewing, but I cottoned on fairly quickly whilst watching - especially as Eastwood did similar casting for 'Jersey Boys' four years prior. In terms of actual acting talent, Jenna Fischer and Judy Greer feature minorly.
It isn't just the cast issues, though. The way the plot is set up didn't interest me, the scenes actually onboard the train are solid but that practically only makes up a quarter of the 94 minute run time - the rest is filler, as we see the main trio's lives up until the main event. That would've been fine if the acting was better, but that evidently wasn't the case.
Respect to all involved, but as a film this falls very short.