There’s nothing like a transatlantic flight boasting the choice of 40 or so movies to watch. Thank you, United Airlines. After Anchorman 2 ended, I went straight into The Monuments Men. From the first preview I saw of The Monuments Men, I knew I had to see this movie. The story looked great and the cast looked even better. The Monuments Men was initially scheduled to be released in prime Oscar-bait season. And then it wasn’t.

Word on the street was that the special effects weren’t ready, causing the movie to be delayed a couple of months. When it finally was released, the reviews were so-so, and the word on the street changed to the special effects were fine the whole time, but that the studio delayed it because the movie itself wasn’t very good. Having finally seen the movie, I put no stock in the movie being delayed on its merit. The Monuments Men is great, and is definitely worth watching.

In The Monuments Men, George Clooney’s Frank Stokes leads a small group of men to steal priceless art. Think Ocean’s 11 meets Indiana Jones, an Ocean’s ’45. The entire movie has a race-like feel to it. Can Stokes’s group recover the stolen art before the Russians take it for themselves or the Nazis destroy it? Motivation separates Stokes’s crew from the Russians. The Russians want the art for themselves, but Stokes and company have pledged to return the stolen art back to the original owners, which sets up the Americans, British and French as the heroes of this movie.

The characters are all filled with charm and enjoy terrific chemistry between each other. I loved the snappy banter between George Clooney and Matt Damon, and between Bill Murry and Bob Balaban. The other big highlight in terms of chemistry is between Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett. In what may have been my favorite scene in the movie, I found myself almost rooting for Damon’s James to cheat on his wife and spend the night with Blanchett’s Claire. I won’t spoil how that scene ended other than to say Damon is the epitome of charm at the end of the scene.

For you history buffs out there, History Vs. Hollywood did a nice comparison of how the movie version of Monuments Men compares to the real life people involved in the film. Check it out here.

I highly recommend checking out movie version The Monuments Men, even if war movies aren’t usually your thing. I like this movie so much that I look forward to reading the book it was based on. The film is sharply written and well acted. As it turns out, you really can’t go wrong with a cast like this.

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