The Monuments Men

The Monuments Men, George Clooney directed, produced, and starred in this WWII film that tells the story of a group of men that try to save much of Europe's priceless artwork from Adolf Hitler's plan to confiscate or destroy it all. My father, 86 years on, watched this movie and his critique was that there was not enough information about the art that was stolen and saved. My son, 24, was only able to watch the first 20 min. His comment was that the "movie is boring!" Unfortunately, they are both right, but I did watch the entire film and I have to give Mr. Clooney kudos for trying... The premise is based on a true story. It's a story, a lesson, worth telling—people will come and go, it is the art, monuments, architecture, literature, music, language, culture and traditions that will endure and ensure the survival of civilization (loosely paraphrased). The movie takes a middle of the road approach to drive this point home. It's the dialogue between the men, their thoughts about the mission that's emphasized, not the art, not the action, not the drama. I guess this makes sense with the title, but because of this approach the movie falls flat.... With the great cast, Kate Blanchet, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Matt Damon, the French guy, and several others—there was a missed opportunity to make a fun, entertaining movie; perhaps another Dirty Dozen, Ocean's 11, or something similar. With the compelling true story, there was a chance to make a real documentary type film that would have been interesting as well as educational. The producers should have gone one way or another. Hypocritically, I've got to say that my recommendation is also middle of the road. I can honestly say I did enjoy it, but on the other hand, I don't really recommend it.

World War Z

World War Z, 2013 soft zombie movie starring Brad Pitt (soft because it's rated PG-13). I usually avoid these made for adolescent boys' movies like zucchini and raw broccoli. Unfortunately, this film was available free on my cable TV, and I felt like watching something mindless. I thought maybe with Brad the movie would have some redeeming value – WRONG! However, It is completely mindless. The story was stupid and predictable. The acting was worse, Mr. Pitt really just took the money and ran for the hills on this one. The zombies were not scary – gross, weird, spastic... but, definitely not scary. There were a couple of suspenseful moments, but they were slow moving and never really made me jump or believe that zombies really existed. Some of the special effects were okay – but, nothing to raise the roof about. Watching a swarm of bees ON a PBS documentary is more terrifying. I almost turned off the TV midway through... Now I don't want to discourage you zombie freaks out there from watching this film, but in this world of so many choices – death by zombies seems to be the least plausible. For everyone else, I don't recommend this movie. Don't waste your time.