George Clooney has a knack for bringing together terrific casts for his films and 2014's THE MONUMENTS MEN is no exception.
Clooney stars as Frank Stokes, an American officer who puts together a very unlikely bunch of soldiers to find all of Europe's great artwork that the Nazi's are hiding and destroying as they occupy countries.
Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Hugh Bonneville, John Goodman and Bob Balaban are all great actors and many of them are great comedians, but the film suffers from a constant shift from light comedy to serious drama to war film, never coming together into a cohesive experience.
Cate Blanchett has some very good moments, as do Murray and Goodman. It's beautifully shot and created and features a great war time movie score by Alexandre Desplat that reminds you of "The Great Escape" and "A Bridge Too Far", two far superior war films.
I'm a big fan of Clooney's as both actor and director (Good Night and Good Luck is terrific) but this isn't his best work.
If you want to see a GREAT film about getting back stolen art from the Nazi's at the end of WW2, check out THE TRAIN starring Burt Lancaster.
The Monuments Men pales in comparison and derails with a C.
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