The Monuments Men

The U.S. Army's Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section, tasked during World War II with preserving culture and retrieving millions of artworks stolen by the Nazis, is somehow turned into a movie in praise of stars Matt Damon and George Clooney (the latter also directed and co-wrote with Grant Heslov, from Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter's book), making the section's fine work look like a 1940s prequel to Ocean's 11. It also reduces the 400 workers from 13 nations to a handful of Americans (John Goodman, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban) with a few token Europeans (Cate Blanchett, Hugh Bonneville, Jean Dujardin). False notes abound—words to a song that weren't written until 1954, music that sounds like the theme from The Andy Griffith Show—and, as usual, Clooney's preening vanity gives him all the best lines.