The Monuments Men is quite bad. The filmmakers take an interesting but very limited story idea (the Nazis stole art during the war, but we found most of it, and pretty easily) and they stretch it out over two hours in a way that kills all suspense, all intellectual interest,  and all emotional resonance. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a dignified historical topic butchered in quite this manner. The script is absolutely horrendous, not only chock full of insipid filler and embarrassing and needless attempts at humor, but also devoid of any substantive or convincing historical content. Character development is even worse, too shallow even for caricature! The score is trite and tacky in the extreme. And the men’s program to save western Europe’s art comes across as entirely hair-brained and reckless, succeeding mainly through dumb luck. If they actually wanted to honor these men and their accomplishments in this film, something went horribly wrong.

Nevertheless, Monuments Men was somehow not completely unwatchable. The cast is comprised of charismatic, big-name actors who are also skilled enough to function as character actors; Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and John Goodman are just wonderful practitioners, and even with the horrifying script they manage to make their characters fun to watch. The exception is George Clooney, who inevitably turns into an unbearable soap opera ham in the absence of a strong script and strong direction. The other pleasant aspect of the film is that you get to look at a bunch of really beautiful art. Yes, it’s not filmed very well, nor is it on screen for very long, and nothing interesting is said about it, but you get to experience just enough of it to keep you from walking out of the theater.

So, if your good friend absolutely wants you to accompany them to this film, it will be at worst mildly unpleasant and boring for you. But if possible, it’s best to skip this one altogether.