Monuments Men

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 118 Minutes










Click below to watch the Monuments Men trailer.



In Columbia Pictures Monuments Men, a World War II allied squad is put together by George Clooney to rescue national art treasures captured by the Nazis.

Written, Directed, and Produced, as well as starring George Clooney, and based on the book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter, Monuments Men is based on the true story of a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, and art historians Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, along with others such as Dimitri Leonidas and Parisian curator Cate Blanchett to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of Western civilization culture from the Nazis.

This film is more of a sentimental drama instead of your typical war movie. As a result, while there are consequences of war, it is not as graphic as your typical war movie. There are very few battles depicted and had more of a suspense feeling than actual action in the film. Having a group of out of shape, middle-aged art historians that Clooney put together as a military unit generated most of the laughs of the movie. While I had heard of Hitler confiscating art treasures all over Europe for his own use, such as his proposed Fuhrermuseum - I had no idea there was a task force created and tasked by FDR to rescue these works of art before I heard of this movie. Of course, there was a resistance for Clooney's squad by the allies as being unimportant compared to the lives of the soldiers fighting for their lives. For me, what made the movie is of Clooney's speech that art is the exact reason that we are fighting - for our culture and our way of life. As well as Damon's question of a collection of pictures and what they are and Blanchett's answer that they are of people's lives.

While there might be comparisons to to the movie Kelly's Heroes, which was also based on a true story, Monuments Men dealt more with art than with gold bullion.

This is an incredible cast, and I was glad to see that Clooney got Bob Balaban cast in this movie. I have been a fan of Balaban's since Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It is too bad that Balaban did not have a larger role, as I thought his character was perfect for Balaban. Having George Clooney's father, Nick Clooney in a cameo was a nice touch.

I have to concentrate that the movie is called Monuments (plural) Men. We saw Monuments Men at a more upscale theater because the theater was central to all of us. Before the showing, the usher described the movie to the audience. He joked that the movie starred just about every working movie actor working in Hollywood at the time. As it was, the movie had an incredible cast starring in it. Just before we went in to watch the show, I saw some friends of mine coming out of the theater. "What are you seeing?" "Monuments Men." "Great movie!" We all agreed after the movie was over, that Monuments Men was a great movie.

Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 118 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

RED TAILS

Twentieth-Century Fox

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 125 Minutes



Click below to see the trailer of Red Tails.



Inspired by True Events, in Twentieth-Century Fox's Red Tails, a squadron of Negro fighter pilots must fight bigotry - as well as the Germans during World War II.

Executive Produced by George Lucas, and based on the book Red Tails: An Oral History of the Tuskegee Airmen  by John B. Holway,  Red Tails is set on their Eurpoean home air base in Italy as the pariah squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group of the Tuskegee Airmen from the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, must fight to get respect for being the first African American military aviators. They wanted to fight for freedom, just like all the other Americans. The Tuskegee Airmen also have to fight the boredom of being based one hundred miles from the front lines. Breaking ground by fighting bigotry at both the highest levels of the Pentagon - with the belief that African Americans can not have the relevant combat skills to go to war, especially when news about the Tuskegee Airmen's lack of performance gets leaked out  - and from their fellow military officers on the ground. These airmen go from attacking targets like trucks on the ground - "traffic" - to eventually fighting for their lives as they engage in air combat with Germany's most advanced fighter plane, the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter.

When General Gerald McRaney asks if Colonel Terrence Howard's men can protect McRaney's bombers from being shot out of the sky, Howard tells McRaney if he can get his men new planes, instead of the broken down Curtiss P-40 Warhawk planes they have now, they can protect McRaney's bombers. When the Tuskegee Airmen get the new P-51 Mustangs, Howard has the planes tails painted red - thus the Tuskegee Airmen become the Red Tails. The Red Tails soon become the bombers best friends. While the B-17 Bomber - otherwise known as "The Flying Fortress" which is a heavily armed plane which flew in wedges of 18 and 36 planes, and with half the crew as gunners with a firepower of a dozen or more high rate 50 caliber machine guns - the bombers were still an easy target for the enemy fighters as the bombers have to fly a specific flight plan to reach a ground target. As a result of being such easy targets, many bombers were lost - until the bombers had fighter escorts like the Red Tails, who were very successful in practically all of their missions as the Red Tails triumphed over adversity.

The film seemed to be uneven. I was expecting the formation of the Tuskegee Airman program. Instead they are already in place, but are being used for routine boring patrols. The stories on the ground seemed to be more like a soap opera, but not as bad as that. There was more focus on David Oyelowo's relationship with Italian girl Daniela Ruah than with most of the other characters. The movie is similar to the TV show Black Sheep Squadron, which was of a similar misfit squadron with an impressive war record. The ariel footage from Black Sheep Squadron seemed more real to me as I believe - but can not recall since it has been years since I saw the TV show - that the footage from Black Sheep Squadron came from 16mm gun camera footage. With all the CGI visual effects, the planes during the dogfights in Red Tails did not seem as believable to me. Gun camera footage from Oyelowo's plane in his various combat engagements is what is shown as projected from the 16mm film projector in the Red Tails mission briefings. When a pilot is captured later in the film and brought to a German Stalag, that aspect of the movie became more like the TV show Hogan's Heroes.

Half the background music was too modern - too synthesized - when compared to the period of the movie, at least what I noticed during the end credits. And when the Red Tails went out on their first real mission, the music was not as inspiring as I would have wanted as martial music is supposed to be. Having the Red Tails fight the new late entry to the war, the German Messerschmitt 262 jet fighters, was interesting as I usually think of the Korean War as having the first combat use of jet fighters. I was expecting film star Cuba Gooding Jr. to be more prominent in the movie, especially as he was in command of the airbase while Howard was off at the Pentagon - but once Howard returned to the base, all of the leadership went back to Howard and Gooding Jr. became a background character behind Howard. While there were some German subtitles, especially when German fighter pilot Pretty Boy Lars van Riesen is on screen, I would have liked to have seen Italian subtitles in the movie as well since they were in Italy - especially when Oyelowo is courting Ruah.

As a historical film, it is nice that the movie Red Tails came out in time for Black History Month.

Rated PG-13 for violence and sexual situations. Running Time: 125 Minutes

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

Captain America: The First Avenger

Paramount/Marvel Studios

Rated PG-13

Running time: 124 minutes

Set during World War II, Marvel's Captain America: The First Avenger has 98 lb. weakling Chris Evans becoming the subject for an experimental super-soldier serum - and then becomes Captain America.

After being discovered in a block of ice in the present day arctic ruins of a huge flying wing plane, the film then tells the World War II story of Evans. Although it is a simpler time, the country is at war. Despite his physical unfitness as a recruit, Evans is determined to be accepted into the Army. When discovered by scientist Stanley Tucci, Evans is given the chance to develop his natural human potential in a top-secret defense project. After Evans is processed with the super-soldier treatment, Tucci is then killed by an agent of The Red Skull Hugo Weaving - the head of Nazi Germany's research department and their own version of a super-solider accidentally created by Tucci. Weaving uses the Cosmic Cube from the movie Thor to create a series of high tech energy weapons to arm his army of HYDRA in his pursuit for world domination. Without Tucci's support, the now muscular Evans becomes an American USO poster boy punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the jaw. Despite the support of British agent Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper the inventor - and father of Iron Man - who supplied Evans his iconic bullet-proof American shield, Colonel Tommy Lee Jones consigns Evans to the USO. Disgruntled at this branding role Jones has put him in, Evans soon goes off to rescue his captured best friend Sebastian Stan - as Captain America.

The cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in present-day New York City sets up for the superhero team movie The Avengers. At the end of the movie is the trailer for The Avengers. Too bad the movie leads up to The Avengers as Captain America sets up The Howling Commandos during World War II, a series I would have liked to have seen.

Although initially I was not that interested in watching a World War II comic book movie, despite my being a fan of Captain America, this is the best of the comic book super-hero movies of the 2011 summer. Evans character as Steve Rogers/Captain America may seem a little two-dimensional, but his sincerity and drive eventually makes you care about him and towards the end he starts to have a little dimension to him - especially when you discover he has become a fish-out-of-water.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 124 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.