Starring: Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin
Director: George Clooney
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: May 20, 2014
Run Time: 118 minutes
Film: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 3 out of 5 stars
When I saw that George Clooney was directing a film starring himself along with Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Bill Murray and Jean Dujardin…I knew it would be a winner. The film was pushed back into February this year which did set off a few alarms but it all paid off. Like always Cate Blanchett, who just won the Best Actress award for “Blue Jasmine”, is alone is worth the price of film alone. Matt Damon is great in lead of this amazing group of actors. George is George, charming as always. The last year or two has been really kind to John Goodman (“Argo”, “Inside Llewyn Davis”) and same goes to Bill Murphy (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”). To be honest, this is probably not a film I will watch over and over but I was easily won over with the cast and it’s makes it worth checking out.
Official Premise: Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, “The Monuments Men” centers around an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. In a seemingly impossible mission, the Monuments Men, as they were called, find themselves risking their lives in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1,000 years of culture.
Sony Pictures is delivering this film as a combo pack including a Blu-ray + DVD + UltraViolet Digital Copy. The 1080p transfer is quite stunning. They really used some amazing locations to recreate parts of Europe. The cinematography is very well done. The transfer was also mastered in 4K for maximum picture and expanded color, so this is a real bonus here. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track works well to suite the aspect of war surrounding the war. The special features are a little light with no commentary tracks but still decent. “George Clooney’s Mission” and “Marshaling the Cast” are all-new featurettes that go behind-the-scenes into the making of the film. Exclusive to the Blu-ray is “The Real Monuments Men” which looks into the real heroes. “A Woman Amongst the Monuments Men” is a look into the characters brought to life. Lastly there are some Deleted Scenes included.