YMMV / The 15:17 to Paris

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Are Spencer and Alek’s mothers fighting against a repressive school system, or are they simple-minded fundamentalists who refuse to medicate their children and make excuses for their bad behavior?
• Audience-Alienating Premise: Doing a film about a recent terrorist attack…but with the actual heroes playing themselves instead of professional actors. Needless to say, this unconventional method split many opinions.
• Broken Base:
  • The casting of the real-life Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler. Some people thought it gave an air of authenticity to the film and was an interesting artistic choice, while others thought it was simply Stunt Casting and that professional actors would’ve done a better job.
  • Similarly, the casting of numerous comedic actors in dramatic roles. Was it an interesting choice that demonstrated their range, or pure Questionable Casting that led to moments of Narm?
• Catharsis Factor: Seeing El-Khazzani be taken down can be quite satisfying.
• Critical Dissonance: The film received a 23% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes but a B- rating from viewers on CinemaScore.
• Dancing Bear: The film’s biggest draw was that the real-life fighters of the terrorist were playing themselves.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Oddly enough, the terrorist Ayoub El-Khazzani. Despite being in only 15 minutes of the movie and not speaking, many critics found Ray Corasani’s performance to be wonderfully creepy and intense.
• Narm: After Spencer’s teacher claims that single mothers tend to have children with behavioral problems, she retorts “My God is bigger than your statistics.” It’s already borderline Narm by itself, but Judy Greer’s delivery elevates it to this.
• Narm Charm: It’s pretty obvious that Spencer, Alek and Anthony aren’t professional actors, but there is a certain charm in seeing them play themselves and reenact their heroic act.
• Older Than They Think: This wasn’t the first time a military hero played themselves in a movie about their life. That practice goes as far back as The '50s, with Audie Murphy playing himself in To Hell and Back.
• One-Scene Wonder: The German guide who quickly refutes Spencer and Alek’s beliefs that the Americans got to Adolf Hitler first.
• Questionable Casting: A large number of the cast are more known as comedic actors, like Judy Greer, Jenna Fischer and Jaleel White. Whether or not this was an effective use of the trope is hotly debated.
• So Okay, It's Average: While many thought the film was well-intentioned and ambitious in casting real-life people as themselves, there’s not much to chew on narratively and the film as a whole feels rather by-the-numbers.
• Strawman Has a Point: The teacher who tells Spencer and Alek’s mothers about their classroom problems is treated as an uncaring bureaucrat who is more interested in pushing drugs than the children's welfare. But given the two kids’ behavioral issues at another school and with their own parents, it’s hard to argue that she had a point about the kids needing some kind of help.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Spencer and Alek’s mothers are portrayed as proper Christian women fighting against an overbearing school system, but refusing to medicate their children’s (possible) behavioral disorders and excusing their behavior can make them seem like just terrible parents.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The film itself remains rather mum on El-Khazzani’s motives for his attack (it was heavily suspected to be radical Islam) and portrays America in a positive, if somewhat cynical, light. Despite this, some viewers thought the film was portraying an American imperialist agenda and demonizing the whole of the Islamic religion.