The Monuments Men

This movie should have been better than it was.
Frank Stokes (George Clooney) is commissioned by the U.S. government to save artwork destined to be destroyed by the Nazis. He quickly assembles a team to help him. There is Donald Jefferies (Hugh Bonneville) who needs to redeem himself as he has a drinking problem and a record behind him; Walter Garfield, a chain-smoking architect (John Goodman); another architect, Preston Savitz (Bob Balaban); a Frenchman Jean-Claude Clermont (Jean Dujardin); Richard Campbell, another chain smoker (Bill Murray) and a fellow American, James Granger (Matt Damon). The men do separate throughout the film, trying to save as much artwork as possible, but this is made difficult as there are language barriers and must fight against locals very much against their presence. The group eventually gains a German-born British soldier, Sam Epstein (Dimitri Leonidas).
Granger goes to France to figure out where the Nazis have hidden the precious artwork. Here is where he meets a supporter of the resistance who was a secretary for the Vichy government, Claire Simone (Cate Blanchett). Fortunately, there is no romantic development really between the two of them as Granger claims to be happily married. Claire delivers, once she realizes that the artwork will actually be returned to its rightful owners, unlike the Russians who are keeping as much as possible for themselves. She kept track of the locations of everything in a carefully detailed notebook.
But tragedy strikes. While protecting the Bruges Madonna, sculpted by Michelangelo, Donald is killed and the stature is taken. Stokes is determined to get it back. Jean-Claude dies because he is shot by some rouge Germans and is unable to get some medical attention. I really liked how they killed both foreigners. 
The film covers a lot of ground and ultimately has an epic and happy ending, with the men saving tons of artwork, over five million pieces. But they also find the Germans secret vault, containing tons, literally, of gold. When asked by the U.S. government if finding the artwork was worth dying for, an older Stokes (Nick Clooney, George's father), says yes. Art can move people and it is priceless.
Though some of the humor was truly enjoyable, I felt that it didn't fit in with the extreme seriousness of the majority of the film. There were simply too many characters and we didn't know enough about any of them to truly feel for them. I wish it would have focused on the journey of one of the men and zeroed in on one specific element of their long and dangerous journey.
I also felt that there were too many voice overs and the ordering of the scenes was odd at times. Though the film told a good story and made good points, it should have been much more memorable and epic. 
Still, the acting was quite good, with Blanchett's accent being a stand out. The scenery was great but I found some of the dialogue to be too contemporary for a period piece. I wish it was better. I wanted and needed it to be better. Grade: B