It’s a graceful, engaging film -- I enjoyed it. But it could have been called The Tasteful Dozen.
The actors skew a little bit older than the historical Monuments Men, but their lived-in humanity forms a nice contrast to the inhumane m...
At times, this fact-based film feels like a breezy heist flick, while at others it’s a somber tribute to the sacrifices of war. The...
Observer February 5, 2014 It is true. It is history. As a film, it is riveting, suspenseful, harrowing and exciting, and somehow, it also manages to be something rare a...
Us Weekly February 6, 2014 Clooney, who’s grown into quite a versatile actor over the past decade, gives himself a role that he could phone in from his living...
Chicago Reader February 6, 2014 The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, established by the Allies during World War II to protect European and Asian cultural treasures from...
"The Monuments Men" has many good intentions. It’s just unfortunate that it didn’t have more spirit and a steady sense of what it...
Alas, it’s a throwback that’s thrown its back out – limping along, trailed by battalions of stereotypes and ammo rounds of cl...
If you’ve ever doubted how thoroughly a poor score can wreck an otherwise perfectly acceptable motion picture, get thee to 'Monuments Men.'
It is a little difficult to generate dramatic tension about an art-salvage project when there is a world war going on around it.
New York Times February 6, 2014 Because Mr. Clooney can’t figure out what kind of story this is, he too often slips into pandering mode, including in his own performance, wh...
I respect the inspiring story being told, but the film’s screenplay doesn’t have the necessary weight in its pages, or the depth in its...
There’s lots of information, some nice images, plenty of earnest sermonizing about culture and almost no suspense, or tension, or character d...
New Yorker September 22, 2014 We may have gained something in humor by not taking the saviors in the art-rescue story very seriously, but we’ve lost just about all of the...
RogerEbert.com February 7, 2014 It’s the kind of film that you’ll stumble across on TV, watch for a few minutes thinking, "This is all right, I don’t know w...
ScreenCrush January 29, 2014 They don’t make 'em like that anymore!
It’s like an over-the-hill gang variant on The Dirty Dozen, except not as much fun as that sounds.
Austin Chronicle February 7, 2014 This film is a collection of vignettes in search of a narrative center.
This misfire reduces the Allied effort to preserve Western culture to a series of dim star turns.
Slant Magazine February 6, 2014 George Clooney’s film boils a big, messy maelstrom of theft and uncertainty down to a digestible, faintly appetizing mush.
Independent February 14, 2014 For all its tremendous production values, George Clooney’s The Monuments Men is a profoundly frustrating and unsatisfying film. Clooney simpl...
Arizona Republic February 5, 2014 Clooney never quite finds the balance between the earnest do-gooding and the broader comedy he’s seeking to find.
Times of Israel September 26, 2017 My main takeaway from Monuments Men is that sometimes not every nifty true oddity from history needs to be made into a movie.
Rather than juicing each element to blockbuster volume, Clooney has delivered it in the tone of a memorial lecture, warm and ambling, given by...
Detroit News February 7, 2014 Clooney’s obviously going for old-school charm and camaraderie here, but the first half of the film is so scattered, and the characters are s...
ReelViews February 9, 2014 The movie does a good job of illustrating why protecting art from the Nazi scourge was important but it’s far less effective fleshing ou...
This is by no means a short film, yet somehow none of the characters, or any of their detective work, has time to make an impression.
Times (UK) January 2, 2018 George Clooney’s simplistic wartime art heist movie staggers between parody and sincerity, failing at both.
Toronto Star February 6, 2014 George Clooney – who stars, directs, produces, and co-writes – dearly wishes his labour of love could be more than this, as might we all.
The Monuments Men is okay, if you don’t expect too much from it. It’s a fine rainy-Saturday movie. But shouldn’t we expect m...
The Monuments Men sounds like a what’s-not-to-like? movie, but it turns out to be a bizarre failure. It’s not just that the f...
Movie Mom February 6, 2014 The humility and devotion of the heroes cannot help but move us and, I hope, inspire us to treasure the masterworks they saved and the heroes who s...
George Clooney’s The Monuments Men is processed cheese. It is a film that has been rewritten, edited, and refined until it has lost all...
Financial Times February 13, 2014 Clooney the star schmoozes through on a gallon of charm and a pint of invention. He has said he might give up acting for directing. I think he...
Salon.com February 7, 2014 Clooney’s movie is a slow-witted, occasionally agreeable retread of numerous WWII band-of-brothers flicks its director no doubt watched...
The Guardian February 9, 2014 This displays none of the nimble-witted sleight of hand, nor indeed old-fashioned suspense, of Argo, the last historical caper movie with which Clo...
USA Today February 6, 2014 Despite its intrinsically fascinating subject matter and winning cast, The Monuments Men is no treasure.
indieWire February 4, 2014 A tame, affable overview of the events minus much of their depth.
Rolling Stone January 31, 2014 Escapism junkies may feel betrayed. Clooney has crafted a movie abort about aspiration, about culture at risk, about things worth fighting for.
Too much of the time, The Monuments Men falls into a compromised middle zone, not urgent and only mildly amusing.
online.wsj.com February 6, 2014 Alexandre Desplat’s intrusive score keeps telling us what mood we should be in. Moods change from moment to moment, though, and not only in t...
Never strikes the storytelling balance that the material deserves. At times, the film drags, while at others, it rushes through essential character...
[Clooney and Heslov] make sure "Monuments Men" is fleet and fun, but wisely stop short of simply making "Ocean’s Eleven" with jeeps.
Clooney has transformed a fascinating true-life tale into an exceedingly dull and dreary caper pic cum art-appreciation seminar - a museum-pie...
Los Angeles Times February 6, 2014 Earnest and well-intentioned but ultimately inert, "The Monuments Men" talks a better game than it can deliver.
The Guardian February 6, 2014 This amiably ancient film is all too stiff – as if Clooney feared that any sudden noise or action would wake his performers up.
By no means a cheap forgery, but no masterpiece either.
The Monuments Men feels not just self-conscious but also a bit self-congratulatory, its creator squashing the spirit of adventure with too man...
Film.com February 7, 2014 A frustratingly flat film that drifts from moment to moment with a curious lack of urgency and an overbearing sense of self-importance.
Globe and Mail February 7, 2014 The high-minded message about preserving Western civilization often feels at odds with the movie’s half-hearted heist-flick approach.
The Guardian February 16, 2014 The tonal uncertainty undermines complete engagement, taking the edge off both the drama and the comedy, leaving the film floundering episodically...
The New Republic February 6, 2014 This is one of the most dreadful, smug, and incoherent films I have ever seen, and a travesty of its many large subjects.
New York Post February 6, 2014 Clooney’s low-key directorial effort is not quite an Oscar-caliber movie, though it’s got a great cast, a worthy theme and plenty...