Postby Alucard1191 » October 3rd, 2021, 4:18 pm
So, two movies to add here, I guess 3.
I watched Oceans 8, then I watched Oceans 11 to compare directly, then "The Monuments Men."
Alright, so quick review style for these: Oceans 8 I heard bad things about, so I went in with really low expectations. This helped with the experience. The movie isn't great at all, but I feel it's better than the 2nd Oceans movie, Oceans 12. The film's main issue was that it took itself too seriously. Oceans 11 had much more comedic relief moments, didn't take itself super seriously and had a much more brisk plot that was established and well under way by the 18 minute mark. Ocean's 8 didn't even really establish the plot until nearly 30 minutes in and then kept a little bit too much under wraps. A twist or two is nice, and the Oceans movies always have one or two, but in Oceans 8 it wasn't paced well.
I also just think for the most part the Vegas is a more enjoyable scenario/setting than robbing the Met in New York. (The plot of Ocean's 8.)
So Oceans 8 wasn't terrible, but no more than a C grade. Certainly not an F or D movie like I was hearing, I've seen much worse. (Like Monument's Men.)
Monument's Men has an absolutely A+ all star cast. George Clooney, Bill Murray, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett, and more. Basically everyone in is recognizable from somewhere and known to be really talented.
Holy crap this movie sucks though. Written and directed by George Clooney, this is a WWII movie with a really good premise, that fails horribly. The premise is this: WWII is going on, and this history/art professor guy is worried that all the great art and sculpting in Europe is going to be destroyed. So with limited blessings from the army he puts together a crew of experts that are not soldiers, that go to Europe to save this art.
It's based on a true story and holy hell it's slow. When there is action most of it is only shown in small amounts then it has these long, long monologues mostly by Clooney though other characters have a few. It's so... boring. A lightning quick scene with the Nazi's stealing something, a main character getting shot, (off screen) and the the film panning over to him dying while a letter is being read over it. The letter take Clooney many minutes to read. The death scene is 30 seconds.
This makes the film just... creep by... so slowly. You keep waiting for something exciting to happen or at least some clever dialogue but no. It's just... slow, boring, and ruins what should be a really really interesting story of older professors/sculptors/etc. becoming genuine soldiers that saved a huge amount of European culture. At the end Matt Damon lists off all the things they saved and it's like... "You couldn't make this exciting? Your list of accomplishments sounds so exciting." But it isn't.
Well, 3 reviews down. Of the 3, the George Clooney Ocean's movie is the only one I'd actually recommend.