The Monuments Men - An Okay Movie

As a movie, The Monuments Men had some issues.  It had slow pacing in parts.  Some scenes were confusing.  It relied heavily on sometimes painful cliches.  Even the music was cliche.  But still, I was able to watch and enjoy learning about this part of history I had never heard before.

Seven men (four Americans, one Englishman, one Frenchman, and one German) are sent to save works of art during World War II--the time period immediately following D-Day.

At first, the seven men feel a lot like placeholders--pawns moving on a board without character or history.  But as the story progresses, we finally see some interaction, and I was able to start caring about these guys.

The movie attempts to play with a little humor.  I went in expecting Ocean's Eleven meets The Dirty Dozen.  However, the humor was very light and not very funny.  Though, I never found this "humor" detracting.  Rather, it was like regular army guys grilling themselves (like the scene in the attached trailer when Matt Damon steps on a land mine).

Evidently, a lot of what happened in the movie was true.  Though, a lot was dramatized.  In actuality, there were 345 Monuments Men, which was reduced to 7 in this movie.  Well--the movie does show other men helping out in some scenes, but I have no idea where they came from.

George Clooney did well in this I'm-doing-everything movie, though it comes across as an indie movie.  It makes for a good date night movie.  It's a good story to be told, and I highly recommend watching when it comes out on DVD.