'The Monuments Men' Promises Good, Old-Fashioned Fun

When news broke that George Clooney's World War II art movie The Monuments Men would be pushed to an early 2014, there was cause to worry about the movie's quality. But a new trailer makes the movie look like a fun, old fashioned, WWII caper film.

When news broke that George Clooney's World War II art movie The Monuments Men would be pushed to an early 2014, there was cause to worry about the movie's quality. But a new trailer makes the movie look like a fun, old fashioned, WWII caper film.

A move out of Oscar season to early the next year is often an indication that a movie is not up to par, but Clooney has insisted that the movie's ultimate goal wasn't a trophy race and they simply needed more time to finish it. In an interview with Deadline, he said the film was "something we wanted to do in the tradition of The Guns Of Navarone and The Great Escape." And he's definitely got that tone down in this look at the film, even if that tone might have seemed off in earlier trailers.

The movie, which looks at a misfit team trying to save art from the Nazis, is already drawing comparisons to the Ocean's movies, what with its plot lines involving thievery and cavalcade of movie stars. (Amanda Dobbins at Vulture points out that that's actually the Ocean's Eleven music in the trailer!) But that's not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it might be the perfect thing to brighten up an often dark time of year for films. 

For what it's worth, when we interviewed John Goodman and asked him about Monuments Men he said: "That might be the most fun I've ever had working on a movie."