The Monuments Men

The cast of men in the movie is fantastic. An opening scene when George Clooney's character is hatching his plan with Matt Damon's character is reminiscent of an Ocean's scheme. Except now they will be assembling a crew to recover and preserve art from Nazis. A much more admirable and serious feat. George Clooney wrote and directed the movie. I love that George cast Jean Dujardin; Dujardin beat Clooney for Best Actor two years ago. Bill Murray is at his best and partners off with Bob Balaban humorously and heartwarmingly. John Goodman continues to have a very busy career, appearing in award winning fare like Argo, Flight and Inside Llewyn Davis as well as comedies like the Hangover III over the last two years. Goodman's exchanges with Dujardin have a similar feel to the Murray-Balaban banter.

Hopefully we will be hearing about the Monuments Men again during next year's award season. Maybe I would just like that to be the case. It is historical and the Academy tends to like that. The remarkable story was also unknown prior to the film. The box office has been decent but it had little chance against the Lego Movie. It debuted in second place and was fifth this past weekend at the box office. The film will recoup its 70 million dollar budget and make modest profits. It may not be enough to keep the movie visible ten months down the line. The movie's Rotten Tomatoes and imdb ratings are also not very promising. Movies released in February and March rarely make it into awards season and it may need more popularity to be memorable enough without soaring critical acclaim. Here's hoping because it is a very good flick.