It was an interesting idea to tell this story with the real people who lived it. However, it was more an idea for a 30 minute TV special than a feature length movie. The movie is about them stopping a terrorist attack on a train, but that only takes 5 minutes so Clint Eastwood fills it out with a lot of very uninteresting backstory on the characters. They are ordinary people with ordinary lives, and that makes for very dull movies. I don't care about when they were in middle school or if they were clubbing in Amsterdam two days before the attack.
As for casting the actual people to play themselves, it serves as a reminder of how difficult acting is. No offense to Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos, but they can't act. Almost every line sounds awkward and unrealistic because they aren't sure how to behave in front of the camera. The child actors are just as bad, which is typical of most child actors. The only people who feel natural in their roles are Judy Greer and Jenna Fischer, the professional actors.
There were also several anachronisms that are minor complaints, but are mistakes that shouldn't be made. First, in the scenes from their childhood, set in 2005, there is a poster for Letters from Iwo Jima on Spencer's wall. The movie didn't come out until the end of 2006, given that it is Clint Eastwood's movie, he should get that right. Also, when Spencer decides to get in shape for the military (sometime in 2011 or 2012) they are watching a Cal football game from 2006. I wouldn't have noticed, except they mention Marshawn Lynch by name and have a shot of the game itself and the announcers can be easily heard during the scene. They had to go and find video of that game to show, so why didn't they pick a game that was from the year the scene was taking place.
As for casting the actual people to play themselves, it serves as a reminder of how difficult acting is. No offense to Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos, but they can't act. Almost every line sounds awkward and unrealistic because they aren't sure how to behave in front of the camera. The child actors are just as bad, which is typical of most child actors. The only people who feel natural in their roles are Judy Greer and Jenna Fischer, the professional actors.
There were also several anachronisms that are minor complaints, but are mistakes that shouldn't be made. First, in the scenes from their childhood, set in 2005, there is a poster for Letters from Iwo Jima on Spencer's wall. The movie didn't come out until the end of 2006, given that it is Clint Eastwood's movie, he should get that right. Also, when Spencer decides to get in shape for the military (sometime in 2011 or 2012) they are watching a Cal football game from 2006. I wouldn't have noticed, except they mention Marshawn Lynch by name and have a shot of the game itself and the announcers can be easily heard during the scene. They had to go and find video of that game to show, so why didn't they pick a game that was from the year the scene was taking place.