Hit the two dollar cinema to see Monuments Men yesterday.
Not a big fan of Clooney or Damon, but I do enjoy seeing what Bill Murray will come up with next. It was fun, certainly worth the two dollars, and may have been worth full price. Certainly a theater charging more would have more comfortable seats...
The movie is about a team of soldiers who were recruited, and tasked, to recover and return works of art that had been looted by the Nazis.
Mrs. Drang is reading the book, which (she tells me) is intended as a detailed history, so, while the movie is a fine entertainment, it is more "inspired by" than "based on" true events. For example, the movie follows 6 or 7 guys, and implies that that was all there were; in fact, the team in France had 18 members, and there was a another team in Italy. (And the author intends to write separate book about them.)
There was little to set off my military-history-geek-accuracy-BS-meter; one scene where Clooney's C47 landed at an airstrip, and there was a pristine B17, P47, and P51B set up side-by-side, or actually in an arc, like a static display. Highly unlikely three unused examples of three different aircraft would be parked on the apron like that. Also, the bumper numbers on all the trucks used were nonsensical. (Bumper numbers always get my attention, trying to decipher them...)
Highly unlikely that a bunch of radios scrounged from various sources and repaired with tubes, ditto, would have been useful for the separate teams to communicate across all of France and western Germany. (And en clair, at that!) Amazing that Clooney didn't get shot up in "blue on blue" action driving around in a scrounged kubelwagon...
In the credits--doesn't everybody stay through those?--I noticed that, in the "props and F/X" category, they had two people listed as "Military Webbing Masters". I don't get quite that obsessed, but then, I can understand how those unfamiliar with such things might need help... (Entirely possible that a cinema "military webbing master" isn't tasked with helping actors assemble and wear their web/load bearing gear properly, but that's what seem most likely to me...)
All in all, a pretty good flic. Especially for the price.
Not a big fan of Clooney or Damon, but I do enjoy seeing what Bill Murray will come up with next. It was fun, certainly worth the two dollars, and may have been worth full price. Certainly a theater charging more would have more comfortable seats...
The movie is about a team of soldiers who were recruited, and tasked, to recover and return works of art that had been looted by the Nazis.
Mrs. Drang is reading the book, which (she tells me) is intended as a detailed history, so, while the movie is a fine entertainment, it is more "inspired by" than "based on" true events. For example, the movie follows 6 or 7 guys, and implies that that was all there were; in fact, the team in France had 18 members, and there was a another team in Italy. (And the author intends to write separate book about them.)
There was little to set off my military-history-geek-accuracy-BS-meter; one scene where Clooney's C47 landed at an airstrip, and there was a pristine B17, P47, and P51B set up side-by-side, or actually in an arc, like a static display. Highly unlikely three unused examples of three different aircraft would be parked on the apron like that. Also, the bumper numbers on all the trucks used were nonsensical. (Bumper numbers always get my attention, trying to decipher them...)
Highly unlikely that a bunch of radios scrounged from various sources and repaired with tubes, ditto, would have been useful for the separate teams to communicate across all of France and western Germany. (And en clair, at that!) Amazing that Clooney didn't get shot up in "blue on blue" action driving around in a scrounged kubelwagon...
In the credits--doesn't everybody stay through those?--I noticed that, in the "props and F/X" category, they had two people listed as "Military Webbing Masters". I don't get quite that obsessed, but then, I can understand how those unfamiliar with such things might need help... (Entirely possible that a cinema "military webbing master" isn't tasked with helping actors assemble and wear their web/load bearing gear properly, but that's what seem most likely to me...)
All in all, a pretty good flic. Especially for the price.
1 comment:
Wow, I'm not paying attention to theater movie releases -- I recall seeing adverts for this and then hearing nothing about it. Hope it did well enough to keep WWII on Hollywood's radar.
I'm glad movie accuracy/detail attention has improved over the years (I remember flinching at the tanks in Patton when I was 9 or 10 years old).
The bumper numbers thing gets me -- most collector vehicles I see either have "POV" or some facsimile bumper number on them. I'm a little stumped how they got nonsensical ones on there. I mean, if you know they need to be there, you know they need to mean something. Heck, I'd be tempted to number up from my old unit just for fun, if I had a vehicle that is no longer issue. (Wonder if anyone is driving a Gamma Goat 'cause it is cool?)
Anyway, thanks for the review, I will watch for it when it comes up on a streaming service down the road.
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