So it seems that George Clooney stumbled across a box set of Dad’s Army on Ebay and has put together a glossier, more action-packed American version; cool!
The Monuments Men premise is that of a rag-tag team of art historians and museum curators who are assembled to help recover important cultural artworks from the hands of the Nazis, before they are ordered to be destroyed and are therefore lost forever.
These cultural types are not born-soldiers (despite one of them being Jason Bourne) and therefore we can expect some laughs and capers along the way, as well as learning about the tragedy of destroying a country’s culture and essentially erasing them from history. Wink wink nudge nudge! Are you getting that reference to current situations huh? Is that too subtle for you? Wink wink!
This film’s stellar cast includes Matt Damon, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett and Bill ‘Ghostbustin ass!’ Murray but it really is Clooney’s baby as he stars, directs and even had a hand in the script. A lot of early comparisons have been made to Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, but George is far more understated in the Director’s chair than Quentin and will also play George Stout far more suave than Brad Pitt played Aldo Raine.
It’s fair to say the film looks promising. The plot line is simple but it’s still an interesting twist on the conventional war story and how could you go wrong with such a great cast? If I could reserve my seat in the cinema now, I would.
The film is set for release in December in the US, but no UK release has yet to be announced, so watch this space and watch this trailer:
