Genre: Drama, Biography
Main Players: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, Bob Balaban
General Gist: A group of unlikely men seek out stolen art during WWII in hopes of saving what the Nazi's are trying to destroy. Based on a true story.
Tiff's Take:
There's nothing better than a good George Clooney/Matt Damon movie. They have such great chemistry together. Paired with a good movie and they are fantastic. I was hoping that this would be one of those movies but I was slightly disappointed.
All the actors did well and George and Matt were their normal wonderful selves but the movie itself was a little slow. I'm not sure if it was the screenplay or what but it didn't feel like it had much direction. It was also missing some pizazz or emotion or something. Things happened too matter of factly that you almost didn't care if something happened to one of the characters. And it was sort of easy to forget that they were plopped down in the middle of a war. There wasn't a sense of urgency or level of intensity.
Aside from that though, it was really interesting. (Slow and interesting at the same time? A little bit of an oxymoron.) The idea of what these men were trying to do was really fascinating. This is something you don't often hear about when you learn about WWII. For that, I enjoyed it. But if it wasn't such an interesting topic with phenomenal actors then I don't think this movie would have really gone anywhere at all.
Tiff's Rate: Matinee
Deb's Take:
I disliked history growing up. I didn't like my history classes, I was often bored with the facts and because of that I know very little about history, (to a fault). In the last few years I have grown to love history because I began studying it in a more interesting way. I like the stories behind the history. The meat and potatoes. My husband says I had the wrong teachers. I think so. Now, I know this movie is hyped up on Hollywood, but what I liked about it was that it taught me some history I didn't know. The story was so fascinating to me. World War II and the doings of Hitler are so intriguing. SAD..but intriguing.
I agree with Tiff that this movie wasn't so much about he actors. They all did good, and I know the group of them was more of some of the "top" players, but really, the story had me engrossed more than the actors. They did a good job, but I wouldn't say they were what made the movie, the story itself made the movie. The movie would have been good to me no matter who played the parts. I wasn't as underwhelmed as Tiff in this one, I don't remember feeling like the movie was slow, but I agree there wasn't much emotion or intensity. I don't know how close to the real story this movie came, but I enjoyed learning something I didn't know before. Although this wasn't a huge winner for me, I can't say it was a loser.
Deb's Rate: Matinee
