12 Times Terrible Acting Ruined Potentially Great Movies

2. The 15:17 To Paris

Clint Eastwood strikes again, once more making an ill-advised choice to cast "authentic" actors, which combined with his speedy shooting style provided calamitous results.

The 15:17 to Paris is a dramatisation of the 2015 Thalys train attack, which was ultimately averted by three American men, Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos.

Though the film strains to make a full narrative feature out of an event that lasted mere minutes, the real issue is Eastwood's decision to cast Stone, Sadler and Skarlatos as themselves in the movie.

Heroic though they unquestionably are, they have no natural acting instincts, and their performances feel phoney and stiff at almost all times, even when they're casually riffing with one another.

Eastwood was so concerned with pulling off a gimmicky experiment that he didn't consider the possibility that the film would be more affecting and believable with actual professional actors doing the leg-work.

Given the pre-release awards hype for the movie, clearly a far more affecting and worthy version of this story was possible, but with such an egregious casting gaffe, it never stood a chance.