The Monuments Men:
During World War II, Hitler hatched a plot to steal some of the world's most valuable artwork and store it in a planned Fuhrer Museum. The U.S. dispatched a team of men nicknamed "The Monuments Men", a group of inexperienced, middle-aged and elderly men: architects, painters, historians, sculptors, etc. They must brave the horrors and dangers of WWII in order to retrieve the artwork, which is stored in bunkers and underground storage units all over Europe, not because they're paintings, but they represent our culture and everything that the Allies were fighting for at the time: freedom for the people in Europe who were living under fascist dictators, a freedom the Axis Powers sought to destroy and replace with totalitarianism. Now, this movie is a bit disappointed if you were looking for something on the scale of Saving Private Ryan, Empire of the Sun, Schindler's List, or Band of Brothers (funny, all of those are Steven Spielberg projects). However, it was pretty entertaining. George Clooney directs and stars. I've been pretty satisfied with Clooney's other directorial projects, particularly the excellent Good Night and Good Luck and the provocative The Ides of March. This film doesn't quite measure up to those movies in quality or effectiveness, but that doesn't mean it wasn't good. The film has a solid cast, featuring not only Clooney, but Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Cate Blanchett, and Hugh Bonneville. It also has lesser-known actors like Sam Hazeldine and Dimitri Leonidas is supporting roles. The cast are really great, and have excellent chemistry. The "Monuments Men" actually split up into separate little duos, which all worked perfectly: Bill Murray and Bob Balaban, John Goodman and Jean Dujardin, George Clooney and Hugh Bonneville (with Dimitri Leonidas tagging along as well), and Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett. They all have great chemistry, and I think having each little duo go on their own mission and then regroup later on helped the film not get cluttered with too many characters on screen at one time. The music by Alexandre Desplat may be a bit bland, but it perfectly fits the overall tone of the movie. Speaking of which, it was a surprisingly lighthearted movie with little bloodshed, despite it taking place during WWII. There were darker moments, too, but overall it was a lot more comedic than I expected. I actually enjoyed most of the humor, but it just felt a little... well, strange and out-of-place for a movie taking place during a violent and destructive war. However, it didn't ruin the movie experience at all. Just a little more with the negative here before the positive: you can predict some character deaths a scene or so before they happen, which is never good because then you as an audience member are not surprised and shocked by a tragic death, you're just sort of disinterested or disappointed. The film, being about two hours long, can feel a bit slow at some parts, and then too fast-paced in others, they never found the right balance. Plus, if you're fans of longer war films like Patton, The Great Escape, Lawrence of Arabia, Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now, etc., this may feel far too short for an epic WWII tale. Another thing that always bothers me about most movies set during WWII, and this movie is no exception: whenever they show Adolf Hitler, it's very brief and he never speaks on screen. Why is that? Do they think they can't capture the character right? Because Inglorious Basterds and Downfall had him speak (hell, in Downfall he's the main character), and they did a fine job. Now for the more positive stuff: the movie had some pretty cool action scenes, albeit very brief ones, including a cool little shoot-out scene in an abandoned town between Goodman and Dujardin and a German sniper. The film also had great shooting locations, and it was pretty historically accurate. It kind of makes me want to the read the book the film is based on to fact-check it. The cinematography was impressive, and Clooney in my opinion is kind of like Ben Affleck in that they're decent actors, but excellent directors, in fact, they should do way more directing. The Monuments Men is an interesting historical dramady which has a great cast, some surprisingly good writing, a decent enough score, cool cinematography, fantastic shooting locations, and a talented director to bring it all together. It may not be the most poignant or emotionally stirring thing Clooney's done thus far, but it's pretty damn good for what it is. 3/5 stars
Non-Stop:
Alcoholic air marshal Bill Marks boards a flight to London. He gets on board disguised as an average passenger, and only the flight crew know his true identity. He begins receiving text messages from a passenger aboard the plane. The mystery messenger begins claiming he will kill a random passenger every 20 minutes unless he is paid $150 million via a transfer to an account. Marks realizes he's not playing around when he reveals he knows all about Marks' past and current life. Marks must now stop the mysterious murderer from killing innocent passengers and sabotaging the entire flight, but that may be a far more difficult task than he was expecting. I was surprised by how entertaining this movie actually was. I thought that it was going to be an extremely dumb, extremely boring action vehicle like some of Liam Neeson's other recent projects, but it was pretty good. Neeson basically plays the same guy as in every movie, in fact, for the rest of this review, I won't refer to him by his character name, just as Liam Neeson. He's just this bad-ass, jaded, gruff older guy who just fucks up anyone who gets in his way. I'm convinced that's just how Liam Neeson is in real-life, just this older guy who happens to be extremely good at fighting, shooting, and hunting down and killing bad guys. Besides Neeson, the film actually has a pretty good cast: Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey), Nate Parker, Linus Roache (Law & Order: SVU, Batman Begins), Scoot McNairy (Killing Them Softly, Monsters, Promised Land, 12 Years a Slave), Lupita N'yongo (the recent Oscar winner from 12 Years a Slave), Corey Stoll (Midnight in Paris, House of Cards), Anson Mount (Hell on Wheels, Tully), Omar Metwally, and model Bar Paly. Even though it's just a popcorn movie, I can't help but criticize some elements: at certain points in the film, it seems like Liam Neeson's being a dick just to be a dick. His aggressiveness and bluntness in certain scenes is unnecessary. The film's villain also has an unclear motive. I'm not saying all villains need a motive, in fact, in some films it's scarier when they don't (The Dark Knight, The Devil's Rejects, A Clockwork Orange, American Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), but when your villain clearly has a motive of some kind, but it's not really explained exactly what it is, it's not very satisfying. The villain's plan also heavily relies on things just sort of working themselves out. There's no way the plan would have worked unless he was psychic and could predict exactly what Liam Neeson would do at what time. Also, the whole climax was cool, but it wasn't very realistic or believable by any stretch or the imagination. But it's a movie, so there's always going to be flaws. The positives are that the cast are actually really good for a dumb fun action movie, especially Neeson and Moore, who have great chemistry. The film also does a good job of keeping you guessing until the very end as to who is the killer. The film is also pretty intense in certain areas, and even a bit touching (especially in one scene where Neeson gives this speech about his tragic and dark past to the entire plane). Non-Stop is a good movie to watch with a group of friends. It's fun, explosive, and exciting, and although it's not nearly as good as Taken, or even Darkman and The Grey, it's also not nearly as bad as Unknown or Taken 2. 3.5/5 stars
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