Drama. Starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman and Cate Blanchett. Directed by George Clooney.

Watch The Monuments Men Online "The Monuments Men" is an old-fashioned World War II movie, of a kind Hollywood used to churn out 50 years ago, back when the war was still a fairly recent memory. Today, in the post-"Saving Private Ryan" era, war is invariably presented as a series of individual tragedies, even in tough-minded films such as "Lone Survivor." But "The Monuments Men" harks back to a time when audiences more easily accepted that overall missions mean more than the problems of a few little people.

Watch The Monuments Men Online So the movie has a certain gallantry and a spring in its step that's retro, appealing and ever-so-slightly phony. The soundtrack is buoyant, like the one for "Stalag 17" or "Hogan's Heroes," and the overall mood is happy yet serious. It's a little bit funny and a little but schmaltzy, a mostly jolly adventure in which people get killed.

Watch The Monuments Men Online And in its own odd way, the film makes the case for itself. "The Monuments Men" feels of the same era as the real-life Monuments Men and is a movie those guys probably would have understood and enjoyed. It's based on the exploits of a real-life platoon of mature guys, with backgrounds in the arts, whose task was to find and protect the millions of art treasures stolen and hidden by the Nazis.

Watch The Monuments Men Online The basic outline of the story is true, though the characters and their names have been changed. George Clooney, who also co-wrote and directed, plays Stokes, who heads the operation and enlists the group during the latter part of the war. He puts together a bunch of fun fellows - played by John Goodman, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Matt Damon, Hugh Bonneville and Jean Dujardin. They arrive in France one month after the Normandy invasion and get to work, mostly just behind the front lines, sometimes ahead of them.

Watch The Monuments Men Online The actors skew a little bit older than the historical Monuments Men, but their lived-in humanity forms a nice contrast to the inhumane megalomania that they're trying to reverse. The Nazis may have strutting lunatics, but we have John Goodman, incongruous in an Army uniform, leaving civilian life for the greater good.

Watch The Monuments Men Online At one point, someone describes what Hitler wanted to do with all the artwork, to have it installed at a massive Fuhrer Museum in Linz, Austria. Upon hearing this, Bill Murray repeats the phrase, "Fuhrer Museum," and there's a whole world in that line reading - awe at the hubris, astonishment at the ridiculousness, as well as weariness and sadness.

Watch The Monuments Men Online That's really what "The Monuments Men" is about, art and people and knowing one's proper scale in the grand scheme. The film depicts a treasure hunt, only in the sense that the movie has to have a running story. But it doesn't really trade on suspense or adventure, and in the few places Clooney pushes it that way, it doesn't feel right.

Watch The Monuments Men Online Mainly, it's just a series of incidents, there to remind you of the sacrifices of good people and of the importance of art in human civilization. These are modest artistic goals for the filmmakers, but they involve big things - big enough to carry a somewhat choppy and flawed movie across the finish line.

Much of the action takes place in France, and Dujardin, with his charm and infectious smile, plays the lone French member of the group. Cate Blanchett plays a French woman who works at the Louvre, and she seems as much of a stretch here as she did playing a German in "The Good German."

Watch The Monuments Men Full Movie A modest suggestion: They have actual actresses in France and Germany, and they don't even have to learn the accent. Next time, think about it.