George Clooney’s all-star WWII heist film “The Monuments Men” was recently moved from Oscar season to a quieter release date in February, and the film’s new trailer seems to reflect a change in objective from award-winner to crowd-pleaser.
Clooney leads a stellar cast — including Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Bob Balaban, “The Artist’s” stars Jean Dujardin and John Goodman, and “Downton Abbey” star Hugh Bonneville — as they attempt to recover priceless works of European art plundered by HItler and his Nazi war machine toward the end of WWII.
Starting with the presence of Clooney and Damon, “Monuments” is certainly not shying away from “Ocean’s 11” comparisons. This time, the easy-going Clooney is assembling a team of experts for a cause more noble that stealing from a casino, but much of the trailer’s first half really does feel like another spin on the “Ocean’s” formula — even going as far as using David Holmes’ lounge-jazz score from “Ocean’s 11” as the soundtrack.
While the trailer features plenty of new footage (including more Blanchett, plus Murray back in basic training 30 years after “Stripes”), it still closes with the same Damon-on-a-land mine gag seen in the initial trailer. Why’d they do that?
“The Monuments Men” opens February 7, 2014.