Wartime Ocean's Eleven

Rating: 7/10 (8 November 2019)

You know how people complain that they "don't make nice, simple movies" anymore? Check this one out. Confidently directed by Clooney, this gorgeous film follows a group of WWII soldiers with one very complicated task: rescue and recover as many great works of art as they can from the Nazis. Sounds like an easy job, right? Nope. With the Germans losing the war, they started retreating back into their native land--and took everything they had pillaged with them. Or burned it. Clooney, Damon and Blanchett are great -- I got a distinct "wartime Ocean's 11" vibe from them -- but the real standouts are Bill Murray and John Goodman, investing their characters with heart. It's not the greatest movie ever made, and not even the best WWII movie ever made (that's Schindler's List, a movie I saw once and never need to see again), but it's the kind of the un-ironic, un-cynical movie Hollywood doesn't make any more.