QR Film Review: The 15:17 to Paris

From previous experience, I've noticed Clint Eastwood films to go one of two ways: really good or really bad. This is a perfect example of bad work by Eastwood as he focuses on the dull back stories of the three young Americans that had the authentic courage to stop an attack on a train. Eastwood has made the three characters dull/ unrelatable causing the film to come off boring. After watching the film, I felt the train attack was simply anticlimactic and detached.

15:17 Paris through branding appears to be emotive, however the scripted narrative makes the film seem very unusual. Eastwood’s build up to the climax of the film felt dragged out and long making the actual main event appear less dramatic leaving viewers unsatisfied  by the dedication they had for the main protagonists. After watching the long climax to the end of the film I simply felt uninterested in the main event. Furthermore I didn’t believe the main three protagonists had a good connection, the acting wasn’t believable enough as the dialogue in the script was very cliché making the film feel not authentic. The acting simply felt wooden and if the film was recreated I would definitely reconsider the  main protagonists.

The entirety of 15:17 Paris felt strange and unauthentic  which I didn’t expect for a true story event. Having endless drinking and drained over used dialogue just made the watching experience feel dull and didn’t live up to the genre description of ‘thriller’. I felt the short scene on the train was overlooked by myself as a watcher as I almost guessed exactly what was going to happen, as Eastwood used basic camera work and well known cinematic techniques, I felt this could have been experimented with more to make the film more visual interesting since the script simply was not exciting at all.

The ending sequence of the protagonists being honoured felt wrongly edited with weird cut-off points.

Clint Eastwood has got it really wrong with 15:17 Paris in so many ways: scripting, casting and visuals. I don’t like to be so negative on someone’s work but I feel this was utterly disappointing.

My rating for this film is 2 out of 5, I was really disappointed with the film after having high expectations! 

By Grace Parry