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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.
Critic 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.
All Critics (247) | Top Critics (53) | Fresh (75) | Rotten (172) | 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.
This displays none of the nimble-witted sleight of hand, nor indeed old-fashioned suspense, of Argo, the last historical caper movie with which Clooney was involved.
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.
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.
The Monuments Men feels like a monumentally wasted opportunity.
It's certainly enjoyable seeing this great group of actors...get to work with each other, given time to build moments and reactions, albeit the film's insistent score sometimes overwhelms the action.
Clooney is trying to push the merit of the material a touch too much; a fact betrayed by the amount of times his character ventriloquises the film's two main morals.
The rare misfire from a helmer who usually evinces just as much self-assuredness behind the camera as he so easily embodies in front of it.
The movie is fine, but it should have been a powerful, moving and heroic film. It could have been a classic, instead it was a romp.
Clooney speeches and preaches nonstop throughout.
Underrated feel good buddy comedy that has some older Allied gents trying to save art masterpieces from the clutches of greedy opportunistic Nazi types. While uneven this Clooney love child has it's moments.
Super Reviewer
The premise is fun, making you think of 70s WW2 caper movies. I don't know how they managed to combine such a fantastic cast and yet make every single character and actor feel underused. The decision to split up the team didn't help. The direction and look of the film are great and there are glimpses of what could have been. But the plot remains somewhat undecided, sometimes hinting at the terrors of war while being entirely unexciting at the same time. Entertaining but also a missed opportunity. Pity.
Not bad but not too great either. With the subject matter and that cast this should have been so much better.
When George Clooney made his directorial debut in 2002 with the off-beat Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and followed it up with the superb McCarthyism drama Good Night and Good Luck it seemed that he had just as much talent behind the camera as he did in front of it. However, the dull Leatherheads and largely disappointing The Ides of March came next which threw some doubt over his ability to call the shots. With The Monuments Men I'd, unfortunately, have to say that this has more in common with with his latter efforts. During World War II, Frank Stokes (George Clooney) learns of Hitler's intention to steal the world's greatest works of art for his own personal museum. Under the permission of President Roosevelt, Stokes assembles an unlikely platoon of art experts to enter into war-torn Europe and rescue thousands of years of cultural heritage before the Nazis and the Soviets get their hands on them. Credit to Clooney for trying to evoke old-fashioned Hollywood movies as, for the most part, he succeeds. There's a pleasant feel to the proceedings that brings reminders of John Sturges' The Great Escape or Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen. Like those films, it has an abundance of quality actors onscreen and despite their roles seriously lacking in characterisation they bring a certain playfulness and much needed charisma. In fact, if the stars weren't as easily watchable as they are then the film itself would completely fall flat. Despite it's easy going nature, though, there are glaring shifts in tone. Just as your relaxing into the whole caper vibe, it throws in some serious dramatic moments and events that are jarring. I suppose I may be being overly critical when the film is all about a race against fascism but it just struck me that Clooney couldn't fully realise his intentions here. An admirable attempt to replicate an old-fashioned movie but it only really works on the surface. Once you dig a little deeper, it's all very two dimensional and superficial. That being said, if all you're looking for is some unabashed entertainment without having to think too much then this should go down without much fuss. Mark Walker
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