The Monuments Men (2014)

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I'm sure Mr Clooney had some good intentions for making this work but did he really have to set his hand to writing and directing? These tasks he has done rather poorly and drags much of his good intentions down to the level of a typical Dirty Dozen meets Oceans 11 type - this story needed more respect. It's also getting to be overly obvious that George 'casts' his cigarettes as closely as his co stars - everything he does features smoking as a major influence to the story (looks ominously like payola unfortunately?) His big cast are also pretty much your Hollywood HBO TV variety and their characters are underdeveloped to the point of creating little empathy. Pity, as the initial-based-on-fact story is worth a far stronger treatment. A good documentary could have covered this more convincingly. I'd recommend taking another look at Frankenheimer's "The Train" to get a better understanding of the significance of this whole Nazi 'Art theft' business. George was fortunate to get his big budget back but, I suspect many might have been somewhat disappointed with the end product considering such a costly input.

Unlike many of the mainstream critics, I found this movie to be totally entertaining and informative -- a pleasure to view in a big screen theater. The editing and video segues are slick and easy to follow. And the interaction among the cast members makes this a totally enjoyable experience. George Clooney is said to have been despondent about the lack of this film's box office success, even though it turned out fine globally. I can say without equivocation that some films just need to be made, no matter what box office receipts turn out to be. This was one of them. As the rise of despotism worldwide churns our stomachs, it is imperative that we're never allowed to forget what's at the end of that road. This movie displays it without varnish to try to keep the public focus on vigilance. Clooney, Matt Damon, John Goodman and Bill Murray and Cate Blanchett headline a cast that delivers at every turn. Rent this movie if you haven't seen it and then take the phone off the hook while you watch. It will be time well spent.

Due to the initial success of the Nazi war effort in France, Poland and other European countries certain art enthusiasts get together and offer a plan to the President of the United States to build a small military unit to go to the front lines and recover all of the valuable paintings and sculptures they can before they are shipped off to Germany. Naturally, with the overall victory over Germany and Italy still in doubt there aren't many resources available to them and the task at hand is extremely dangerous as well. However, their efforts are rewarded to a certain degree when a man named "Frank Stokes" (George Clooney) is given the authority to assemble a squad to carry out the mission. To that effect, he gathers various art collectors and enthusiasts that he can trust and together they venture into France, Belgium and even Germany in order to acquire the treasures before the Germans can hide or destroy them. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an interesting film in large part because it was based on a true story. Having said that, however, I must admit that there were some scenes that seemed a bit contrived and unrealistic. Be that as it may, that's not to say that I necessarily disliked this film and all things considered I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Despite the star-studded cast, the movie displays fell very short for me. The story is amazing however, in order to perhaps attract a younger crowd, the movie removes itself from the struggle of warfare during WW2. There were some good/funny scenes and I'm not going to say the movie was awful but, considering the topic that is being talked about, I feel that the directors cut back on the potential in order to stay at PG-13.