Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

When they could get it so right with Private Ryan, how could they get it so wrong with this? In case you are wondering this is set in wartime Europe, yet every town and city is lit up like Disneyland on steroids - apparently never heard of the blackout. Even military camps near the front line are complete with floodlighting and every soldier wandering around carrying a torch, that's not to mention the shower tent with lashings of hot water at the Battle of the Bulge! Paris in wartime apparently had loads of women dressed to the nines gazing at the latest fashions on display in the shops, even Cate Blanchettes flat was stuffed with every mod con and of course lashings of food and wine. War torn Europe after almost five years of war was a place of misery and deprivation, with destruction that obviously could not be imagined by the producers of this film. It completely ruined the whole structure of the film, the team appeared to be looking for stolen good in downtown New York!

Films set in World War Two are incredibly popular and the genre has become saturated. There is no room for mediocrity anymore. In comes George Clooney and his famous Hollywood friends to add to the exclusive list of excellent war movies...Ha! Based on the true story of a group of historians going into Europe to recover artistic masterpieces that the Nazi's stole. The film does not do those historians justice, at all. Quite simply this was a mess, narratively speaking. I was hopeful at the start as Clooney and Damon hire the assistance of other historians. Then the movie kicks into second gear and the group are disbanded to various cities across Europe. The narrative consistently shifts between five (...yes five!) different parties of the same unit. This constant switching was ridiculously jarring and I couldn't maintain focus on what the heck was going on. It wasn't a cohesive narrative, it was like watching five separate stories in one film. Not to mention that nothing here was engaging or compelling. Character development was minimal, editing was rushed...this could've, and should've, been executed better. Even the acting felt bland, hardly any acting at all! Only Blanchett and Dujardin felt immersed in the story. Everyone else was just themselves but in costume. Clooney clearly focussed on his directorial efforts and it showed. I honestly think his directing style is great. It's clean, sharp and he isn't afraid to let the actors do their job. I appreciate the light hearted atmosphere, rare these days in a war film but it felt like Dad's Army instead of Saving Private Ryan. There were glimpses of humour, particularly with the land mine scene where our characters actually interacted. But ultimately it was too little too late to save this. Mediocre at best.

These days, any time you see a film with the phrase "based on a true story" you know it's Hollywood code for B.S. story, caricatures not characters and historical inaccuracies and/or outright lies. The mistake the film (and clooney) makes, is to try and make a jolly jape, comedy out of what should have been quite a serious subject. Which you could have had some laughs with. Yet another film where the true story would have been so much more interesting and compelling than stereotypes, infantile humour and glibnessI suspect in the film makers egos, they were making a classic war film like 'A Bridge to Far' or 'The Dirty Dozen' instead we get the 'Soppy Seven' good actors in search of a script. Lazy story telling 6/10

I was dragged kicking and scream to watch this by my girlfriend. I used to like WW2 films, "Cross of Iron" and "A bridge too Far" were firm favourites growing up.But modern WW2 movies seem dedicated on making really bad versions of "The Magnificent Seven". From "Saving Private Ryan" to "Fury" to "Red Tails" it all boils down to our band of heroes having to defend some ridiculous objective against a horde of incompetent, suicidal Nazis.Monument Men is not like that. It tells the story of Allied special agents sent to recover, protect and return works of art.The characters are likable and interesting, and very human. There have been at least a few flourishes of artistic licence (for instance who would go to the effort to design a land mine that explodes when you step off it?)I don't know the true story but this seems believable enough to me and I was gripped right up to the very end.It goes without saying the affects and production are very high quality. Against my initial feeling I would highly recommend this.