Review of The 15:17 to Paris (2018) by Kipwinger — 11 Feb 2018

Spoiler-free.

The 15:17 to Paris is definitely nowhere near as bad as the professional reviewers and some of the audience comments might lead you to believe. Were there moments of cringe-worthy dialogue? A few perhaps. Was it obvious that the three main actors weren't really actors? Yes, but, honestly, that was actually refreshing. Because we live in a very photoshopped and airbrushed and overly-rehearsed and overly-polished society media-wise. The media in almost all of its forms offers us the common man and woman these near impossible standards of beauty, grace, athleticism, eloquence, etc, and not to mention in films especially, absolutely over-the-top and outlandish unreal action sequences. So it was more than refreshing to see something that matches up more with real life and that shows some of the awkwardness and banality, and even mundaneness and mediocrity, of the average Joe and average Jane.

Now, in my opinion, yes, the three Heroes / actors are a bit too wooden and solemn in their dialogue. I would assume that in real life they have more banter and more of a joking nature in at least some of their interactions.  But in the movie, this either wasn't shown, or when the attempt was made to show some levity, it usually seemed to fall fairly flat.

But again, I did not personally find that nearly as offensive and detracting from the overall quality of the movie as did the majority of the critics and some of the non-professional reviewers. In fact, again, I found it to be rather refreshing.

For me, the movie worked, and worked very well. It's certainly not a masterpiece like Unforgiven or Gran Torino. And it certainly doesn't have the same dramatic punch throughout like Sully and United 93 had. In fact, I think it would have been interesting if they had made some mention of United 93 in the movie as a form of foreshadowing. These young men / heroes are all in their mid-twenties, so they would have been around 10 years old when 9/11 happened, and probably in there early to mid-teens wind the movie United 93 came out, so, in my opinion, that certainly could have made for something that might have inspired these boys.

Overall, an excellent movie and well worth watching. And if you go, make sure you stay at least halfway through the end credits.