Good and entertaining account of the recovery of "monuments", works of art, stolen by Nazi Germany.

Rating: Null/10 (19 June 2014)

After seeing "The Monuments Men" I read a few reviews and a few general comments and am a bit taken aback by some of them. Especially the ones terming this movie "boring." It is anything but.
One might take issue with the way it was written and filmed, after all it is a George Clooney product. But I like Clooney, I like his injecting appropriate comedic moments into an otherwise serious film. I never found it boring, to me it is paced just about right and the situations are never dull.
This is based on a primarily true story, of the US POTUS commissioning a small band of men in the 1940s, nearing the eventual end of WW 2 and the defeat of the Nazi Germans. The Nazis had systematically stolen great works of art, millions of different items, and had carted them away to be hidden for their own selfish purposes. The men commissioned all had an appreciation for art and looked it as a worthwhile mission, albeit very dangerous. In fact not all of them survived.
The big mystery was to figure out where in fact the "monuments" were being hidden, because captured Nazis were not cooperating. But one of them finally cracked the "code" on a map, all the locations had nearby mines, copper mines, salt mines, etc. They rightly figured the works of art were hidden in the mines.
George Clooney co-wrote and directed, and stars as the leader of the commission, Frank Stokes. His cronies included Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville, and Bob Balaban playing key characters. Also Cate Blanchett playing a French woman who provided key assistance.