Reviews for this film from our members:
- Mario Alegre @ Primera Hora [Spanish]
- Dragan Antulov @ Draxblog VI [Croatian]
- Excerpt: pateticno neuspio komad suvremene hollywoodske propagande
- Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: While the actual subject of The Monuments Men is probably still fascinating, the film of this group is lifeless, dull, and a sheer misfire.
- José Arce @ LaButaca.net [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Lo nuevo de George Clooney delante y detrás de las cámaras no alcanza el nivel de trabajos anteriores, aunque su tono coleguil y distendido hace el conjunto agradable y entretenido. Para ver relajadamente.
- Jason Bailey @ Flavorwire
- Excerpt: If you’ve ever doubted how thoroughly a poor score can wreck an otherwise perfectly acceptable motion picture, get thee to ‘Monuments Men.’
- Luke Bonanno @ DVDizzy.com
- Excerpt: As a piece of awards bait, Monuments Men fails. As a wide release studio film opening in February, it’s a lot easier to take.
- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A morally cogent film based on a true story that lifts one’s spirits.
- Daniel Carlson @ Pajiba
- Kevin Carr @ 7M Pictures
- Excerpt: The fact that “The Monuments Men” tells a different type of story with a different perspective and a different objective is its greatest strength. That, and its cast.
- Jesse Cataldo @ Slant
- Bill Clark @ From The Balcony
- Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Composer Alexandre Desplat, who also plays a small role, gets Clooney’s concept with a snare heavy score that sends us back to another generation’s war movies…but “The Monuments Men” is as lifeless as a block of marble yet to be chiseled.
- Edwin Davies @ A Mighty Fine Blog
- Excerpt: [Clooney] presents the funny repartee between the characters with the exactly same respectful, sombre visual style that he uses when his character makes a heartfelt plea to FDR explaining why he should be allowed on to the front lines. The musical choices are also bizarre, with a tense showdown between Bob Balaban, Bill Murray and a scared German soldier being soundtracked by a positively wacky piccolo.
- Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: Somewhere in THE MONUMENTS MEN is an entertaining if only modestly insurgent endeavor. It lacks Clooney’s conviction though.
- Carlos del Río @ El rincón de Carlos del Río [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Monuments Men es la quinta película dirigida por George Clooney, y aunque tiene un buen reparto, parte de una premisa excelente y plantea una disyuntiva muy interesante, es elegante y tienes momentos muy buenos, comete el mayor pecado que se puede cometer en el cine: el de aburrir al espectador.
- Jim Dixon @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: “The Monument Men,” based on the true story of the hunt for art treasures looted by Nazi Germany before they can be destroyed by the Germans or confiscated by the Soviets, could easily have been an Alistair MacLean adaptation, like “The Guns of Navarone” or “Where Eagles Dare,” both of which were made into popular action movies in the sixties. But then it wouldn’t have been a George Clooney movie.
- Billy Donnelly @ This Is Infamous
- Excerpt: A dull, lifeless film that made me wish I was off looking for lost art instead of watching THE MONUMENTS MEN.
- Kimberly Gadette @ Doddle
- Excerpt: While this particular, um, ‘Blingtime for Hitler and Germany’ means well, it suffers from a tone problem: it’s ‘Ocean’s 11’ by way of ‘Schindler’s List.’
- Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Too sketchily scripted, tonally shifting and sermonizing – it’s, nevertheless, given unexpected timeliness by the recent discovery in Germany of yet another hidden art collection.
- Vadym Grygoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
- Blake Howard @ Graffiti with Punctuation
- Excerpt: Unfortunately, the beautiful moments contained within the often divergent threads of the story don’t gel into a masterpiece comparable to the art they’re trying to salvage.
- MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: As jaunty as Jean Dujardin’s beret, but in a sincere, old-fashioned kind of way. It could almost have been rediscovered from the 1940s…
- Daniel Kelly @ eFilmCritic
- Excerpt: “The Monuments Men” has Oscar potential written all over it, until you actually see the damn thing.
- Ben Kendrick @ Screen Rant
- Excerpt: An entertaining but extremely uneven film that might satisfy historical drama fans but falls very short of realizing the full potential in its gripping premise.
- Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Rushed in the beginning, then amusing in spots, and sluggish thereon, “The Monuments Men” just feels stripped of the dramatic urgency and proper momentum it needs in order to be cinematic. In fact, it all has the inertia of an 8 a.m. art-appreciation course with really comfy chairs. Good night.
- Oktay Ege Kozak @ Oregon Herald
- Excerpt: The Monuments Men is a series of anecdotes in search of a movie. Based on one of those World War II true stories full of sacrifice and courage, it piles one scene on top of another, unrelated to each other until it simple reaches the end of the running time. The ensemble cast is superb and deserving of better material and there are some standalone sequences, which deserve the same.
- Kristin Dreyer Kramer @ NightsAndWeekends.com
- Dan Lybarger @ Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
- Excerpt: The real-life mission described in The Monuments Men is so fascinating that it’s easy to forgive the movie for some jarring shifts in tone and a sense that there’s a greater tale yet to be told.
- Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
- Pat Mullen @ Cinemablographer
- Excerpt: The Monuments Men is a portrait of Michelangelo done as finger painting.
- Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
- Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
- Excerpt: The Monuments Men has been roundly dismissed by most critics, racking up a rotten 34% on the Tomatometer. Don’t be turned off: this is an especially solid (if unspectacular) film that brings to life one of the great unsung stories of WWII.
- Nuno Reis @ Antestreia [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Lembra-nos que não lutamos por um bocado de terra ou por um ideal, foi pelas liberdades. Incluindo a de expressão, de pensamento e de acesso à cultura. É um agradecimento aos soldados, aos seus informadores, aos artistas e aos que lutaram (e talvez tenham morrido) para que essas obras chegassem até nós.
- Jamie S. Rich @ DVD Talk
- Excerpt: The tone shifts from funny to sentimental to grave and serious with nary a hiccup. Clooney sees all the pieces clearly, and he fits them together nicely.
- Jonathan Richards @ jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: George Clooney, wearing the hats of writer, director, producer, and star, has crafted a hugely enjoyable old-fashioned war movie, in the tradition of The Dirty Dozen and The Guns of Navarone, out of this gripping, sometimes funny, and sometimes moving material.
- Tom Santilli @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: …it just goes to show you that sometimes, bad movies can happen to good people.
- Josh Spiegel @ Sound on Sight
- Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: A fascinating story tepidly told.
- Phil Villarreal @ COED.com
- Andrew Wyatt @ Look/Listen (St. Louis Magazine)
- Excerpt: Clooney and his performers find it challenging to maintain a light-hearted, snappy tone while also earnestly conveying the righteousness of their characters’ mission.
