The Monuments Men 2014

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Rather than juicing each element to blockbuster volume, Clooney has delivered it in the tone of a memorial lecture, warm and ambling, given by one of the distinguished academics he put in his movie. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: I can't think of another movie that feels as simultaneously rushed and leisurely. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's a graceful, engaging film -- I enjoyed it. But it could have been called The Tasteful Dozen. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: 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 of things to reward adult moviegoers. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: 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 among war pictures-a big-scale entertainment. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: 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 the action sequences. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: "Monuments Men" is often irresistible, thanks to that delightful cast - could Clooney please recruit all of them for "Ocean's 14"? Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: Clooney has transformed a fascinating true-life tale into an exceedingly dull and dreary caper pic cum art-appreciation seminar - a museum-piece movie about museum people. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: The Monuments Men feels not just self-conscious but also a bit self-congratulatory, its creator squashing the spirit of adventure with too many grandiose lines about the Importance Of Art. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Clooney never quite finds the balance between the earnest do-gooding and the broader comedy he's seeking to find. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The movie should work like a pip. Instead, "The Monuments Men" is a labored mishmash of tones: Half "Hogan's Post-Doctoral Heroes," half "Saving Private Rembrandt," and half "Ingres's 11." Read more

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: ''The Monuments Men'' is ... weighed down by dutifulness. It feels like it's only a third act, lacking any buildup of tension or character development. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, established by the Allies during World War II to protect European and Asian cultural treasures from destruction, deserves a better movie dramatization than this fumbling prestige project. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Clooney's attempt to honor unsung real-life heroes while recapturing the ensemble pleasures of some well-remembered Hollywood war pictures ... comes off as a modestly accomplished forgery at best. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's like an over-the-hill gang variant on The Dirty Dozen, except not as much fun as that sounds. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: When you realize it's not coming together, your first impulse is to ask: What happened? Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Think of them as Inglorious Art Historians. Only this PG-13 entertainment has little of the edge, however complicated, of Quentin Tarantino's 2009 Holocaust revenge flick. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: 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 so lacking in specifics, that a sense of group bravado never feels earned. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: The Monuments Men - with its shifting tone between light comedy and drama - rarely gets the viewer invested enough to really care what happens to them. And that's unfortunate, because it really is a fascinating footnote in history. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: 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 film is dull - it's that there's no there there to like. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: A frustratingly flat film that drifts from moment to moment with a curious lack of urgency and an overbearing sense of self-importance. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Too much of the time, The Monuments Men falls into a compromised middle zone, not urgent and only mildly amusing. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Earnest and well-intentioned but ultimately inert, "The Monuments Men" talks a better game than it can deliver. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: "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 should be. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: In The Monuments Men, director George Clooney takes a wild, stranger-than-fiction true story and turns it into a dull, prestigious slog. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: This is one of the most dreadful, smug, and incoherent films I have ever seen, and a travesty of its many large subjects. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: 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 two tones don't harmonize, and they never ring true. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: 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 romantic pleasures of heroism. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: In a way, its familiarity is part of its small charm - and, in a modern world full of imperfect causes, its occasional nostalgic comfort. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: There's lots of information, some nice images, plenty of earnest sermonizing about culture and almost no suspense, or tension, or character development, or structure. Or, well, art. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: [Clooney and Heslov] make sure "Monuments Men" is fleet and fun, but wisely stop short of simply making "Ocean's Eleven" with jeeps. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: 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, which is filled with too many smiles and speeches. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: This misfire reduces the Allied effort to preserve Western culture to a series of dim star turns. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Alas, it's a throwback that's thrown its back out - limping along, trailed by battalions of stereotypes and ammo rounds of cliche. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The movie does a good job of illustrating why protecting art from the Nazi scourge was important but it's far less effective fleshing out the personalities of the people who did the protecting. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: This is a solid albeit slow-building film with few dull moments. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Escapism junkies may feel betrayed. Clooney has crafted a movie abort about aspiration, about culture at risk, about things worth fighting for. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Clooney's movie is a slow-witted, occasionally agreeable retread of numerous WWII band-of-brothers flicks its director no doubt watched on TV as a 1970s teenager. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The actors skew a little bit older than the historical Monuments Men, but their lived-in humanity forms a nice contrast to the inhumane megalomania that they're trying to reverse. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: This is a sturdy, old-school, big-scale Greatest Generation war movie. It's great escapism. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: This film doesn't compensate for its narrow focus with character development, derring-do or robust humor. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: [An] engaging, shamelessly corny and entertaining World War II adventure inspired by true events. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The high-minded message about preserving Western civilization often feels at odds with the movie's half-hearted heist-flick approach. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: George Clooney - who stars, directs, produces, and co-writes - dearly wishes his labour of love could be more than this, as might we all. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Never strikes the storytelling balance that the material deserves. At times, the film drags, while at others, it rushes through essential character and story elements. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Another slipshod and banal, if always watchable, Hollywood co-opting of history. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Despite its intrinsically fascinating subject matter and winning cast, The Monuments Men is no treasure. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: The Monuments Men feels loose and disorganized, even though all the requisite cogs (including a jaunty ascot of a score by Alexandre Desplat) have been accounted for. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: If The Monuments Men never overcomes its unwieldy structure and unevenness of tone, the film still manages to make a profound, even subtle point: that Hitler's darkest impulses and annihilating reach extended from human beings to history itself. Read more