Clooney movies always a safe pick these days

Rating: 8/10 (19 August 2014)

It seems to hardly never be the case anymore that a film George Clooney is involved with happens to disappoint me. I truly enjoyed Gravity, The Descendants, Up in the Air... and "The Monuments Men" I ended up liking a lot too. Here he reunites with Grant Heslov again (the two won a Best Picture Academy Award for Argo not too long ago and also collaborated on Good Night and Good Luck) and is also back in the directing chair three years after The Ides of March..
"The Monuments Men" was the first movie I saw with a 2014 release date and it was a swell start into the year. The cast truly makes this one worth watching, especially the Dujardin/Goodman pairing was nothing short of wonderful. Bill Murray who I'm a great fan of has his funny moments too and makes a nice duo with Bob Balaban. All the supporting characters are really the heart and soul of the film. Cate Blanchett creates an interesting more serious character and the only one in the cast who left me rather uninterested was Hugh Bonneville, maybe also because I've never been too big on Downton Abbey.
All in all, it's a really good movie. There's very minor weaknesses, such as the US flag near the end which made it a bit too patriotic for my taste or that they of course find the paintings the very last second and manage to get them away, which was all just too expected, but these are just minor criticisms. It's a wonderful movie, historically significant and with lots of humor and I especially liked the final scene with the old version of Clooney's character actually played by Clooney's real father. Being from Germany, i was also pleasantly surprised to see Justus von Dohnányi in a major role and his scene with Murray and Balaban is one of the highlights of the movie. Very much recommended.