The Monuments Men

February 2014

(2,414)

Synopsis

In the midst of WWII a small group of art experts are commissioned by Roosevelt as soldiers and sent to the european theater to protect historically important buildings and monuments, and to locate vast troves of priceless art looted by the nazis. Discovering art in castles and mines, they race against time as the nazis scramble to destroy everything they can.

Reviews

3.7

2,414 total

5 777

4 764

3 506

2 199

1 168

James Berardinelli

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.

William Goss

A frustratingly flat film that drifts from moment to moment with a curious lack of urgency and an overbearing sense of self-importance.

Ann Hornaday

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...

Colin Covert

This is a sturdy, old-school, big-scale Greatest Generation war movie. It's great escapism.

Lisa Kennedy

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.

Peter Rainer

It's like an over-the-hill gang variant on The Dirty Dozen, except not as much fun as that sounds.

Critic reviews

James Berardinelli

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.

Full Review

William Goss

A frustratingly flat film that drifts from moment to moment with a curious lack of urgency and an overbearing sense of self-importance.

Full Review

Ann Hornaday

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...

Full Review

Colin Covert

This is a sturdy, old-school, big-scale Greatest Generation war movie. It's great escapism.

Full Review

Lisa Kennedy

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.

Full Review

Peter Rainer

It's like an over-the-hill gang variant on The Dirty Dozen, except not as much fun as that sounds.

Full Review

User reviews

Nathaniel Patrick June 4, 2014

Omg loved this film! Great movie based on a true story along with love, love for art n all forms, bravery, war and why & how things are still here becuz of the men who risked their lives for the sake of our future!

Susan M DePaul July 4, 2014

Very evocative. Some scenes were very difficult to watch, but well worth it. Nice interplay between the characters. I would like to have seen more background. I could use this movie to help teach World War I I if structured properly.

Kelly Delaney July 19, 2014

What a waste of talent Parts of this film are good but mostly its a waste of time and talent. The soundtrack is just awful. Some scenes are very touching and others just stupid - Clooney's attempt at humour? Groan.

Kyle Brinkerhoff May 18, 2014

Absolutely wonderful Thoroughly enjoyed this film, I think it has a great perspective on were weve came from as a society, taking responsibility to save the items that define us and I think the film did full justice to show the bravery of the monuments men and in contrast the sheer vile filth the nazi ss were and of a dystopian future that was narrowly avoided

Steve Hall May 26, 2014

Awful This movie was just plain awful. I turned it off 45 minutes into it because I just couldn't stomach it anymore. Horrible acting. Horrible storytelling. This movie doesn't do the real history justice.

Andrew Skaggs May 21, 2014

When you expect too much from a movie it's gonna be horrible. Some people who write reviews should consider to write their own movie and give it a shot. Im pretty sure that those people would get crappy reviews and be butt hurt. So to the people who wrote bad reviews, write your movie and see where it takes you, since you know what's wrong with probably every movie.

Luke Yanos June 5, 2014

What a waste Lots of potential. Awful screenplay. Pointless scene after pointless scene.

Henry Levine May 7, 2014

Lacks any storytelling ability I saw this movie in theaters. It looked interesting and had a bunch of famous actors, how bad could it be? Answer: very. The characters aren't introduced so much as they are shown being recruited in a montage. The story jumps from event to event with little explanation, consistency, or dramatic pacing. You know so little about the characters that you couldn't care less when one of them dies. The "climax" of the film is as weird, pointless, and lacking as the rest of the movie. They find out the war is over and they need to pull out before the soviets arrive, but they know where the art is and they need to make their escape with it! This sounds exciting, until you realize that the soviets are miles away, don't know about the Americans, and end up wasting time fafing about with some debris in the road. They don't even come close to catching the heroes.

Kenneth Mayer May 12, 2014

Horrible cliches--not even a guilty pleasure--more like a guilty disaster I read the bad reviews in our local papers and online, but I still wanted to see this film, which I called Ocean's 1945. It has a great cast and it could not fail to entertain. Watching Clooney and Murray do anything would be good, or so I thought. I was SO wrong. Clooney is in his full self-righteous Alan Alda mode. Everything he and his men do is noble and great, and the bad guys are slimy. Nothing --nothing!-- really happens in this film. It is a terrible script, terrible characters. We need a few brave volunteers to find the vault where the original data files of this film are stored and torch them, for the good of humanity.

Cyd Oman May 17, 2014

Worth multiple viewings I like this movie very much. It is based in part on the book, which is a great read, but the story line has been fleshed out and enhances the basic history quite well. The visuals and character expansions really capture the essence of the search for privately owned art collections stolen by Hitler, Goring and other Nazi underlings. The movie has some humor to balance the atrocities and a mix of character types. Well done in every respect with excellent acting. Miss Blanchett's performance is stellar

knight flower May 10, 2014

片名翻译的不严肃啊…… 片子完全是没什么起伏相当平淡鉴于取材于真实事迹演员也比较认真给个三星吧

Ken Lahm May 15, 2014

Saw in theaters. Terrible. I refused to believe critics that it was as bad as they all said. I was convinced I would find some joy in this movie between the actors in it and seeing some of it filmed in person in Berlin. No story, no character development and no real climax. I'm even pretty fascinated with the material but it was presented horridly.

Kri xig June 15, 2014

Disappointing I'm not sure what I was expecting when I watched this, but having studied both World Wars for the passed decade, I found the movie very underwhelming. Maybe it was the over reliance on inflated hollywood cast members, or the ho-hum depiction of the Germans (Oh, you capture an officer and OF COURSE he was previously the head of a concentration camp), or the obnoxious French air of superiority in the film ( despite the fact that France stole FAR more from Germany utilizing the Treaty of Versailles...).

Ulyses Yakovlev September 7, 2014

An awesome movie that really got me attached to the characters, I loved and hated some characters and it was pretty funny as well

a bellard September 5, 2014

Uh no I read the book , it was entertaining. Movie wasnt. Dull, boring, unexciting.

Sean Douglass August 5, 2014

The Monuments Men Very well put together film. It tells the story of what happened with all the famous art pieces that were stolen by the Natzis in ww2. How it was recovered and what it took to get it back to its rightful owners. Very great acting. Couldn't pull away from the screen for a second. What the Germans did to the people was unforgiven. How great prevails over evil. Outstanding movie. Five stars.

Sawse Bawse August 21, 2014

Great cast Very entertaining movie and any fan of war movies will enjoy this. Great characters.

Brandi Key May 20, 2014

Awesome Great story, great acting, touching, funny, all around good movie.

Steven Scott June 7, 2014

Good premise. Poor execution. The plot is formulaic. Here is the formula. (I) "Oh no, an obstacle!". (II) " What if we try this?" (III) "Hey it worked!". (IV) go to (I). I'm predisposed to like George Clooney and the rest of the crew, but this one is a miss.

Veasna Ngan July 7, 2014

Boring Long and boring. Hard to follow plot line. A waste of acting talent.

Cast and credits

Actors	George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, Bob Balaban, Dimitri Leonidas
Producers	Grant Heslov
Director	George Clooney

Additional information

Rotten tomatoes® score

32%

Audio language

English (Stereo)

Subtitles

English

Info cards

Enabled

Run time

118 minutes

Rating

PG-13

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