Release Date: 02/07/2014
An unlikely World War II platoon are tasked to rescue art masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their owners.
This one seems almost too easy. It's all right there in the trailer. It's like Ocean's Eleven meets Inglourious Basterds. Just that pitch gets you to 3 stars. We've got the cast, we've got the premise, what could go wrong? Well, in a nutshell, J. Edgar, but since you couldn't splice together 1:43 of that movie to make it look intriguing, I've set the floor for this one at an outrageously high 4 stars.
This cast is too great to fail. Clooney looks to be in full "pretentious smug" mode and it looks like it will totally work for the part. Bill Murray isn't taking anything at this point that isn't awards bait. Matt Damon can pretty much pick his roles. John Goodman is enjoyable no matter what movie he's in. Cate Blanchett only has one line in the trailer, but looks to have nailed the accent. In a side note, it would appear Matt Damon took the role originally earmarked for Daniel Craig, but I couldn't find anything explaining the reason for the switch. Craig hasn't added anything to his slate that wasn't present when he signed on, and the filming for this one took place more or less on schedule. Pure conjecture, but I wonder if once Damon let his Ocean's pal know he was available, Clooney traded up. Irrelevant to the finished product, but still interesting.
There is at least slight reason for concern though, and it mainly comes down to two things. George Clooney's wearing a lot of hats on this one (figuratively, I doubt he'd ever hide that noble mane) with writing, directing, producing, and starring. Writing is really the only job on that list that doesn't add stress and exponentially increase the odds for the project to fail. I certainly didn't see anything to suggest Clooney isn't up to the challenge, but if I'm taking points away from Jack Ryan for something similar, I can't ignore it here. Secondly, the release date got pushed back, and that's never a good sign. January through Valentine's Day tends to be the studio dumping grounds for garbage like Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters; the sort of movies that only stand a chance of making money when placed against similarly weak competition. I'd like to wave this one off and attribute it to the studio seeing a crowded December slate and wanting to let the movie stand on its own. The timing, however, seems a bit odd. The film will be released at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. Short of screening the aforementioned Basterds to that audience, I can't think of too many stranger choices. Still, awards bait movies don't get pushed from their coveted December slots, so it's at least somewhat telling.
What looks like it will carry the movie is the dialogue, with the Clooney / Damon banter having a very "buddy cop" feel to it. It's a strange choice to not include something from Murray in the trailer, as a single, charismatic Bill Murray line would have allayed a lot of my fears. Even with all of those reasons to doubt it, it's tough to mess up a period, historically-based drama like this when you throw this much money at it (the budget hasn't yet been disclosed, but the production value looks too high for it to be anything less than $60 million) and it seems to be in capable hands, so I'm choosing to be optimistic, even with my Worst Case Scenario.
This cast is too great to fail. Clooney looks to be in full "pretentious smug" mode and it looks like it will totally work for the part. Bill Murray isn't taking anything at this point that isn't awards bait. Matt Damon can pretty much pick his roles. John Goodman is enjoyable no matter what movie he's in. Cate Blanchett only has one line in the trailer, but looks to have nailed the accent. In a side note, it would appear Matt Damon took the role originally earmarked for Daniel Craig, but I couldn't find anything explaining the reason for the switch. Craig hasn't added anything to his slate that wasn't present when he signed on, and the filming for this one took place more or less on schedule. Pure conjecture, but I wonder if once Damon let his Ocean's pal know he was available, Clooney traded up. Irrelevant to the finished product, but still interesting.
There is at least slight reason for concern though, and it mainly comes down to two things. George Clooney's wearing a lot of hats on this one (figuratively, I doubt he'd ever hide that noble mane) with writing, directing, producing, and starring. Writing is really the only job on that list that doesn't add stress and exponentially increase the odds for the project to fail. I certainly didn't see anything to suggest Clooney isn't up to the challenge, but if I'm taking points away from Jack Ryan for something similar, I can't ignore it here. Secondly, the release date got pushed back, and that's never a good sign. January through Valentine's Day tends to be the studio dumping grounds for garbage like Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters; the sort of movies that only stand a chance of making money when placed against similarly weak competition. I'd like to wave this one off and attribute it to the studio seeing a crowded December slate and wanting to let the movie stand on its own. The timing, however, seems a bit odd. The film will be released at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. Short of screening the aforementioned Basterds to that audience, I can't think of too many stranger choices. Still, awards bait movies don't get pushed from their coveted December slots, so it's at least somewhat telling.
What looks like it will carry the movie is the dialogue, with the Clooney / Damon banter having a very "buddy cop" feel to it. It's a strange choice to not include something from Murray in the trailer, as a single, charismatic Bill Murray line would have allayed a lot of my fears. Even with all of those reasons to doubt it, it's tough to mess up a period, historically-based drama like this when you throw this much money at it (the budget hasn't yet been disclosed, but the production value looks too high for it to be anything less than $60 million) and it seems to be in capable hands, so I'm choosing to be optimistic, even with my Worst Case Scenario.