The Monuments Men
Director: George Clooney
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 1.5
Old Man Clooney brings together a rag-tag group of art-loving fiends to recapture stolen masterpieces during World War II - it's like Ocean's Eleven meets Kelly's Heroes, except not as fun as Ocean's Eleven ... and I hated Kelly's Heroes. While its intent is not to directly address the atrocities committed during the war, the structure of this one is rather broken up and never brought together (nor are the characters distinctive), and as if it didn't have enough trouble building any kind of momentum, it then downright stops several times to deliver Big Speeches about art, war and humanity. While I do appreciate the arts - I love museums, collect art books and so forth - the notion that any single piece of art is more important than a single human being's life is a step I'm not sure I'm willing to take. Sorry, George.
