Notable story but with a boring pace

Rating: 6/10 (28 May 2014)

Great idea, great cast, a thrilling real-life story behind it all but The Monuments Men isn't more than this. This was the kind of film that, six months ago, you wouldn't have looked foolish staking on it as an Oscar winner. So where'd it all go wrong? It sticks to the facts perfectly but it bores as we spend too much time watching Stokes put his team together and that's too long. Cast is simply impressive but it's not enough to make a really good story out of it, because actors don't match one another that much, with Goodman and Dujardin being a funny double act and with Matt Damon's terrible French. It's probably an accurate look at how a unit like this operated, but in a film like this accuracy is well down the wish list.