The Monuments Men

Name: The Monuments Men
Genre: Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama, History
Released: February 7, 2014
Duration: 118 min
Rating: 52
Cast: Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Cate Blanchett, Dimitri Leonidas, George Clooney

2014

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critics

See All

USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 227 Ratings

See All

5.4

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5.4	Your Score
5.4	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 227 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

THE MONUMENTS MEN

Movie Details & Credits

Columbia Pictures | Release Date: February 7, 2014

Starring: Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Cate Blanchett, Dimitri Leonidas, George Clooney, Hugh Bonneville, Jean Dujardin, John Goodman, Matt Damon

Summary: Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men focuses on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR to go into Germany, rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with theBased on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men focuses on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR to go into Germany, rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys—seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1—possibly hope to succeed?… Expand

Director: George Clooney

Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, Thriller, Comedy, War

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 118 min

See All Details and Credits

Awards & Rankings

58	#58 Most Discussed Movie of 2014

Watch Now

Buy On

Stream On

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Observer - Rex Reed

Feb 5, 2014

This is their story. It is true. It is history. As a film, it is riveting, suspenseful, harrowing and exciting, and somehow, it also manages to be something rare among war pictures—a big-scale entertainment. Read full review

Rolling Stone - Peter Travers

Jan 31, 2014

Who knew? The work of the Monuments Men is fresh territory for film, and Clooney builds the story with intriguing detail and scope. Read full review

ReelViews - James Berardinelli

Feb 8, 2014

Certainly, the story told by The Monuments Men is worth telling and it's easy to see why a luminary like Clooney would be sufficiently attracted to want to direct it. Unfortunately, this treatment, written by Clooney and long-time collaborator Grant Heslov, isn't the best fit. Read full review

The Hollywood Reporter - Todd McCarthy

Jan 29, 2014

Something less than monumental, The Monuments Men wears its noble purpose on its sleeve when either greater grit or more irreverence could have put the same tale across to modern audiences with more punch and no loss of import. Read full review

Philadelphia Inquirer - Steven Rea

Feb 7, 2014

Alas, it's a throwback that's thrown its back out - limping along, trailed by battalions of stereotypes and ammo rounds of cliche. Read full review

Miami Herald - Rene Rodriguez

Feb 6, 2014

In The Monuments Men, director George Clooney takes a wild, stranger-than-fiction true story and turns it into a dull, prestigious slog. Read full review

Variety - Scott Foundas

Jan 29, 2014

Clooney has transformed a fascinating true-life tale into an exceedingly dull and dreary caper pic cum art-appreciation seminar — a museum-piece movie about museum people. Read full review

SEE ALL 43 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

mblackmon132

Feb 14, 2014

Better than what I expected. I walked in expecting to drag through some twilight knockoff, but walked out wanting to see the sequel. I've never read the books, and had no idea what would happen, but it had a good story line, and leaves you wanting more

3 of 11 users found this helpful38

JDKoerner

Feb 8, 2014

I thought this was very well executed World War II genre adventure, and up to the standards of The Great Escape, Guns of Navarone, and The Dirty Dozen, all-star entertainments that don't pretend to convey any great moral lesson [other than Nazis are Evil and yay we beat them] a notableI thought this was very well executed World War II genre adventure, and up to the standards of The Great Escape, Guns of Navarone, and The Dirty Dozen, all-star entertainments that don't pretend to convey any great moral lesson [other than Nazis are Evil and yay we beat them] a notable exception being Bridge on the River Kwai, which was about the high price honor can exact. I found what I thought were deliberate tips of the hat by Clooney: the main title is in a 60s modern design, the music is that jaunty war-movie type like the kind that predominates in Dozen, and one of the team, the Brit, is played by Hugh Bonneville, who bares an uncanny resemblance to Jack Hawkins in Kwai.

No reviewer I have read has cited what I consider to be one of the movie's greatest strengths: its concision, and I don't just mean its 118 min running time in an age when movies now seem to start at 140 minutes and go up from there. I wasn't using a stop watch, but afterward I had the strong sense that no single sequence ran longer than six minutes, no speech longer than 3. It would very easy to drag out scenes on the grounds of suspense: one early dramatic moment plays like the opening of Inglourious Basterds in reverse: will the retired Nazi be caught in his own cottage? Director/writer Clooney could have shown the serving of an entire meal, while our Nazi continues to sweat; instead, the question is answered in less than 3 minutes [and note the sly references to Basterds in which a Monuments Man asks if the Nazi's wife speaks English].

I always make the same point about genre pictures: of course they are predictable, of course they have to hit a certain number of beats. The question is, how will they do so? To say that Clooney did so "tastefully" is to damn with faint praise; the French despised the Nazi's? Show two women spitting into a a Nazi officer's champagne glass. The art is in danger of being burned? 30 seconds of the biggest blowtorches on film. I will leave out the references to Jews: their very "tastefulness" means they draw you in before you have a chance to marshal your defenses and nowhere to which you can recoil afterward.

Just as there are a million ways to play The Wrong Man accused [from Hitchcock to 12 Angry Men, or, in reverse, The Verdict] or every single romantic comedy [would you really complain that you were two steps ahead of the screenwriters when you figured out the unlikely couple would get together in the end? ] this picture is as notable for both its genre strengths as to the its plainspoken, no nonsense approach to what is still, and one can only hope pray, remains the single darkest chapter of human history. What, have we told that one too often yet?… Expand

2 of 7 users found this helpful25

LeZee

May 26, 2014

This movie was loosely adapted from the book of the same name which was originally based on the true story of the world war two. It was a war drama with a theme of the treasure hunt directed by our own George Clooney. The movie had multi top stars who team up for a specially assigned task.This movie was loosely adapted from the book of the same name which was originally based on the true story of the world war two. It was a war drama with a theme of the treasure hunt directed by our own George Clooney. The movie had multi top stars who team up for a specially assigned task. Just like the Alistair MacLean stories they lead their way to the war zone to accomplish.

I don't know how much close to the original story it was, but this movie was a bit slow and drag, all the way dull. But not to forget the story intentionally serves its elements to us without surprises and twists. What we really miss was the scenes that pull us to our seat's edge. Yeah, the fast paced furious thrillers, especially in the last few minutes I was desperate for that and it did come, but did not please me. Even the deaths in the movie were not convinced or appeals strongly. Most of the time I thought it was a dark comedy, especially in the last scene of Jean Dujardin.

Other than cinematically transformation fail, I really liked the story. In the real story with real people it would have been a hell of a job than in the movie, which portrays few pieces of the real incident. Heartbreaks to know that many valuables were destroyed during Hitler's invasion of Europe and also makes me happy that these men saved most of it. No doubt, it was a reasonable attempt by George Clooney. Because this story must reach widely to expose these men's bravery and it's only possible through a movie. This is not a must see movie, but for story wise it is.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

TVJerry

Feb 11, 2014

Director George Clooney has assembled a strong cast (including himself, Matt Damon, Bill Murray & John Goodman) to play the men who traveled to Europe at the end of World War II to rescue thousands of works of art from the Nazis. This true story is full of amazing events, but it's not sureDirector George Clooney has assembled a strong cast (including himself, Matt Damon, Bill Murray & John Goodman) to play the men who traveled to Europe at the end of World War II to rescue thousands of works of art from the Nazis. This true story is full of amazing events, but it's not sure what kind of movie it wants to be. It's a war adventure, a comedy, a drama and an art film, literally…and that's the problem. The story lacks a strong focus. It's an entertaining history lesson, but it's a less than thrilling movie.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

TheFilmFanatic

Nov 2, 2014

The Monuments Men is a war-centric film without the typical action and gore found in these epics. Instead George Clooney opts to take a dramatic approach to this non-fiction caper story only to end up with a rather stale product. The terribly slacky narrative brings absolutely no suspense orThe Monuments Men is a war-centric film without the typical action and gore found in these epics. Instead George Clooney opts to take a dramatic approach to this non-fiction caper story only to end up with a rather stale product. The terribly slacky narrative brings absolutely no suspense or thrills, filled with corny comic relief. The cast is misused with their powerful star potential on characters with zero development causing the story to drag on until its inevitable anti-climactic end.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Thegodfatherson

Feb 7, 2014

Ultimately, The Monuments Men needed to have as much narrative focus and dimension as it does reverence for its subject matter. Director George Clooney's star-studded WWII pic The Monuments Men feels like a work-in-progress rather than a finished and focused feature film.

6 of 6 users found this helpful60

deadsparrow

Feb 15, 2014

There actually was an Allied unit whose purpose was to recover art stolen and looted by the Nazis However, this movie has nothing to do with that unit though its claim to be 'based on a true story' might lead you to think otherwise. This is a George Clooney 'caper' move; a sort of Ocean'sThere actually was an Allied unit whose purpose was to recover art stolen and looted by the Nazis However, this movie has nothing to do with that unit though its claim to be 'based on a true story' might lead you to think otherwise. This is a George Clooney 'caper' move; a sort of Ocean's 7 versus the Nazis tale. It has a cast of big name stars who must have absorbed 99% of whatever it cost to make because there doesn't appear to be a script. The story, such as it is, is a series of alternately maudlin and banal vignettes intended to illustrate the characters of Clooney's team and, by means of a voice over, Clooney's relationship to them. Put them all together, and its a crappy movie, a vanity project. I want my money back!… Expand

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

SEE ALL 79 REVIEWS