The Monuments Man Review

No ordinary man!!! 

The Monuments Man Review – I’m not really a big fan of art and George Clooney so I was not excited as I would always be when I scored the preview tickets. Tambah pulak I also won preview tickets to catch another movie, Saving Mr. Banks starring Tom Hanks whom I liked more compared to Clooney on the same day. ERK! Dilemma betul….mana satu aku nak tengok ni? The art God must have had another plan for me to catch this awesome movie because I managed swap tickets with my movie craze friend so I got to watch both movies (Monuments & Banks) back to back! Yeay!!! Thanks Ivan! 

For the love of Art

Moving on about the review…have you ever wondered how did the amazing art work by legendary artists such as Picasso, Rembrandt and so on survived the World War to be viewed these days? That’s what this movie is about; it is based on true story on how some selfless man sacrificed their own life in order to salvage those precious remnants for childrens of the future. Frank Stokes (George Clooney) gathers his man from all walks of life to journey across Europe during the war to stop Hitler from keeping all the prized possession to himself and also destroying it to ashes. He recruits museum curator, architect, art historian in the form of Richard Campbell (Bill Murray), Walter Garfield (John Goodman), Jean Claude Clermont (Jean Dujardin), Donald Jeffries (Hugh Bonneville), Preston Savitz (Bob Balaban) and James Granger (Matt Damon) to retrieve and return the work of art to the rightful owner.s Each of these man travel to different parts of Germany, Poland and France among others to ‘rescue’ 1,000 years’ worth of history. Helping them along the way were Sam Epstein (Dimitri Leonidas) and Claire Simone (Cate Blanchett). With the Nazi losing the war and Hitler issuing the ‘Decree something’ (sorry I forgot what it is actually called) to destroy everything if he loses the war or die, the Monuments Man have to race against time before the priceless memoir gone forever. Will they succeed?

How to survive stepping on land mine lesson 101!

Mr. French! 

With the cast of such amazing talents and Mr. Clooney himself spearheading the direction, this movie had all the right ingredient to get anyone eating out of the storyline. Each of the remarkable actors performed brilliantly to their ability. Clooney as charming as ever, Damon being funny trying to speak French, Blanchett with her trust issues, Dujardin with her French allure and the rest of the gang were simply exceptional. The camerawork was wonderful capturing the ruins caused by the war and swiftly switch into bright colourful view once the focus of the movie changes into an art piece or statue. For a person who is not into artsy things, I was intrigued into finding out more about the valuable creation of such marvellous drawings and figurine. Heck, I felt like jumping on the next plane to visit The Louvre and ogle at them relics. Bravo George for a well craft job.      

Only Rose among the duri! Blanchett at her best!

Despite the sombre reality about the war and innocent lives being lost for the greed of few people, one can’t help but feel happy/good whenever the man ‘salvage’ a drawing or a sculpture. There is also a grim reminder on how evil human can get by killing other humans just to get their hands on material things such ‘gold fillings’ from the Jews teeth. The war took the lives of thousands or millions of people and hopefully will never be repeated ever again. Sadly there are still ongoing wars taking place during these modern times. Humans are gifted with so many wonders by the Power there is so it’s really up to us to either safeguard or annihilate our history and legacy. Once it’s gone…it’s gone forever. 

Precious preview tickets! 

P/s - Thanks again Churp Churp for the preview tickets! I'm so glad I didn't miss this preview and see you guys at the next one soon!