What a Waste

Rating: 2/10 (8 March 2014)

Don't waste your time or money on this movie. Despite a stellar cast, "The Monuments Men" is a piece of cinematic dreck, unworthy of its cast and director. Mr. Clooney's directing and acting skills went AWOL in this poor excuse for a motion picture. It is a textbook study of how to make a fascinating story dull and boring. The directing, editing, bland acting, and dreadful script suck all interest out of the movie. The only way you know there is any tension or danger is the sound track -- otherwise the actors and director fail to wring any emotion out of the high school quality script. Scenes just suddenly end. SPOILER: There is simply no tension when Matt Damon is trapped on a land mine. And when the Russian army is descending on our heroes, you could cut the tension with a limp noodle because there just wasn't any.
I wish I could be more positive about this movie, given the pedigree of its cast and director. But sadly there's no escaping the undeniable mediocrity of what could, in the right hands, have been a film nearly as exciting as "The Great Escape." I know that is is not easy to make a good film -- and "The Monuments Men" is the poster child for a simply bad, unentertaining motion picture.