Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on seven over-the-hill, out-of-shape museum directors, artists, architects, curators, and art historians who went to the front lines of WWII to rescue the world’s artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners. With the art hidden behind enemy lines, how could these guys hope to succeed?
This is a sturdy, old-school, big-scale Greatest Generation war movie. It's great escapism.
– Colin Covert,
Minneapolis Star Tribune,
7 Feb 2014
fresh:
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.
– Ann Hornaday,
Washington Post,
7 Feb 2014
rotten:
A frustratingly flat film that drifts from moment to moment with a curious lack of urgency and an overbearing sense of self-importance.
– William Goss,
Film.com,
7 Feb 2014
rotten:
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.
– James Berardinelli,
ReelViews,
9 Feb 2014
rotten:
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.