To begin with, the three men who performed this act of courage deserve all the praise and honor they have received. They stood brave in the face of evil and terrorism and managed to prevent disaster.
With that aside, this is truly one of the worst films I have ever seen. There is a scene that takes place in early on in the film that features posters of two of Eastwoods earlier works, Jersey Boys and Letter from Iwo Jima, as well as Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. My advice, spend your money renting one of those movies before shelling out the money for a movie ticket for this latest hiccup in Eastwood's otherwise remarkable filmography. It starts with acting and to put it simply, it's just abysmal. Right from the start, the children playing the young heroes just aren't at the quality of what you would expect. The wooden writing doesn't help and plagues the film with countless cringe moments throughout its runtime. Then we move to the heroes themselves, who would have been better served working as consultants for the film to ensure authenticity. They simply aren't good, and nearly every line they delivered was met with a few chuckles from the nearly capacity crowd at my showing. Even if the three were replaced with trained actors, it's hard to see how that would substantially improve the product. The film acts more like a buddy adventure movie for the better part of it's runtime, rather than the heroic thriller that was being advertised. It's incredibly misguided and marks an unfortunate low point in Clint Eastwood's remarkable career. You are better served reading an account of the event than wasting time and money on this dud of movie. A few stars go to the admittedly tense train sequence that serves as the basis for the film and commitment to authenticity that seems to have been maintained based on press tour comments from the actors.
3/10 - Very Bad
With that aside, this is truly one of the worst films I have ever seen. There is a scene that takes place in early on in the film that features posters of two of Eastwoods earlier works, Jersey Boys and Letter from Iwo Jima, as well as Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. My advice, spend your money renting one of those movies before shelling out the money for a movie ticket for this latest hiccup in Eastwood's otherwise remarkable filmography. It starts with acting and to put it simply, it's just abysmal. Right from the start, the children playing the young heroes just aren't at the quality of what you would expect. The wooden writing doesn't help and plagues the film with countless cringe moments throughout its runtime. Then we move to the heroes themselves, who would have been better served working as consultants for the film to ensure authenticity. They simply aren't good, and nearly every line they delivered was met with a few chuckles from the nearly capacity crowd at my showing. Even if the three were replaced with trained actors, it's hard to see how that would substantially improve the product. The film acts more like a buddy adventure movie for the better part of it's runtime, rather than the heroic thriller that was being advertised. It's incredibly misguided and marks an unfortunate low point in Clint Eastwood's remarkable career. You are better served reading an account of the event than wasting time and money on this dud of movie. A few stars go to the admittedly tense train sequence that serves as the basis for the film and commitment to authenticity that seems to have been maintained based on press tour comments from the actors.
3/10 - Very Bad