The Monuments Men (2014)
TOMATOMETER
Critics Consensus: Its intentions are noble and its cast is impressive, but neither can compensate for The Monuments Men's stiffly nostalgic tone and curiously slack narrative.
Critics Consensus: Its intentions are noble and its cast is impressive, but neither can compensate for The Monuments Men's stiffly nostalgic tone and curiously slack narrative.
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Movie Info
Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys - seven museum directors, curators, and … More- Rating:
- PG-13 (for some images of war violence and historical smoking)
- Genre:
- Drama , Action & Adventure
- Directed By:
- George Clooney
- Written By:
- George Clooney
- In Theaters:
- Feb 7, 2014 Wide
- On DVD:
- May 20, 2014
- US Box Office:
- $78.0M
Cast
-
Matt Damon
as James Granger -
Bill Murray
as Richard Campbell -
John Goodman
as Walter Garfield -
Jean Dujardin
as Jean Claude Clermont -
Bob Balaban
as Preston Savitz -
Hugh Bonneville
as Donald Jeffries
Related News & Features
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RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: The Monuments Men, Pompeii, and More
– Rotten Tomatoes
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Critic Reviews for The Monuments Men
All Critics (217) | Top Critics (49) | Fresh (68) | Rotten (149) | DVD (1)
We may have gained something in humor by not taking the saviors in the art-rescue story very seriously, but we've lost just about all of the romantic pleasures of heroism.
The movie does a good job of illustrating why protecting art from the Nazi scourge was important but it's far less effective fleshing out the personalities of the people who did the protecting.
A frustratingly flat film that drifts from moment to moment with a curious lack of urgency and an overbearing sense of self-importance.
If The Monuments Men never overcomes its unwieldy structure and unevenness of tone, the film still manages to make a profound, even subtle point: that Hitler's darkest impulses and annihilating reach extended from human beings to history itself.
This is a sturdy, old-school, big-scale Greatest Generation war movie. It's great escapism.
Think of them as Inglorious Art Historians. Only this PG-13 entertainment has little of the edge, however complicated, of Quentin Tarantino's 2009 Holocaust revenge flick.
Much of the story could have been introduced with a prologue, leaving Clooney's character Frank Stokes to either concentrate on one raid or the perilous journey of a particularly prized piece of art.
The picture is a study of how Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs applies during a time when the only priority perhaps should be on the physiological.
A fidgety movie that because of its star wattage, great subject matter and shoehorned-in random jaunty moments sometimes entertains but never really satisfies.
By trying to follow closely the book on which it is based, no individual dramatic component of the film grabs the viewer. ... And then, there's no satisfying conclusion.
Sadly, this is a movie with all the right ingredients that have trouble coming together.
While The Monuments Men boasts one of the most impressive casts seen on screen for a long time, the film is ultimately a letdown due to its sluggish pace and uneventful plot.
Fascinating story deserved better than this movie
It is a little difficult to generate dramatic tension about an art-salvage project when there is a world war going on around it.
The film is so excited by the idea of itself that it never bothers to establish a rhythm.
The Monuments Men is a collection of beautiful, individual cinematic moments, instead of the defining tapestry of an incredible story.
The result is uneven and sluggish, with a collection of thinly sketched characters and trumped-up suspense.
It's... a movie where the star power of an elite ensemble cast has been dimmed for the greater good, an interesting-but-dull true story has been embellished for the lesser good
Flat and expressionless, like a punctured tyre that gets you to your destination yet denies you the pleasant diversion along the way.
IT'S disappointing that such a great cast and a wonderful fact-based men-on-a-mission story falls short of its potential.
Directing his fifth film, George Clooney uses the intriguing, fact-based premise to mount a surprisingly light-hearted romp across the battlefield as a gang of art experts...head for the front in search of art. It's sort of like Ocean's Eleven Go to War.
George Clooney's worst film to date, this is a congenial and inert story about irritatingly casual Americans saving Western Civilisation from the Nazis.
Clooney and Heslov fail to settle on a tone, or at least tie the contrasting moods together. There are daring feats and moments of tragic loss, bursts of sentiment and droll back and forth between Murray and Balaban's characters.
Clooney has too much reverence for his story, and as a result he does it about the biggest disservice possible: he makes it boring.
For a film so boastful about preserving history, it seems all too content to commercialise its own story.
Audience Reviews for The Monuments Men
George Clooney tells an intriguing story regarding art in The Monuments Men; just not in a
creative way.
Traversing 110 minutes of historical art seizing, the film portrays a level of staleness. The level of entertainment never hits a high; however, the story gets points for its so-called accurateness and character comradery.
The attempt at humor never works to its fullest, partly because the rest of the film steers more toward the drama and partly because it isn't funny. When it comes down to it, this is a minor blemish as this is more a dramatic adventure than anything else.There isn't much to fault with the cast. George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Cate Blanchett know what to bring with their performances. It's the characters themselves that are lacking.
The Monuments Men has its share of disappointing along with its share of praising critiques. Recommendable if time allows.
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
It took a really long time for me to connect with these characters and this story but eventually it felt worth my while. There are a few truly beautiful moments, but it's a film that struggles with pacing and tone - it flirts with the whimsy of Kelly's Heroes but becomes much more of a historical drama, in the end, (never mind that the drama never quite gets intense enough). The stakes never quite resonate - maybe because the ensemble's too big, and the story gets spread too thin between so many characters? - and as a whole, the movie is too glossy or something; it just doesn't feel important. But it's pleasant to watch and Cate Blanchett steals every scene she's in, so there's that. Another so-so George Clooney-directed movie, in all.
MoreSuper Reviewer
The film has great costumes and is effective as a period film, but it lacks the drama of war and -- unless you already knew the history before watching the movie -- it is episodic and hard to follow. George Clooney and Bob Balaban gave particularly memorable performances, but the film seemed more dedicated to making a monument to the ensemble cast than to remembering the heroic work of a group largely forgotten in history.
MoreSuper Reviewer
The Monuments Men Quotes
- Walter Garfield:
- The army may not care about art, but they sure as shit care about gold.
- Claire Simone:
- Will you stop speaking French? or what ever language you're speaking?
- James Granger:
- If it wasn't for us, you'd be speaking German.
- Preston Savitz:
- No. If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead. But I'd still be speaking French.
- German Soldier at Ghent:
- John Wayne...
- Richard Campbell:
- Yes, John Wayne...
- Richard Campbell:
- Right now, you wish that German had shot you.
- James Granger:
- How many men?
- Frank Stokes:
- For now six.
- James Granger:
- Jesus!
- Frank Stokes:
- With you that's seven.
- James Granger:
- That's much better.
- James Granger:
- If it weren't for us, you'd be speaking German.
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