As the next film directed by George Clooney, the upcoming dramedy The Monuments Men follows the political drama The Ides of March both in sequence and in its quality of ensemble cast. As a matter of fact, this is probably the greatest cast Clooney has been a part of since the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy. And you can tell from the film's first poster, seen above courtesy of Yahoo! Movies, 20th Century Fox is particularly proud of the group of the actors, seeing as the artwork does little more than show them off.
There’s nothing wrong with being proud of this cast, but let's be real: this is a terrible looking one-sheet, especially for a film that’s about saving art. The Photoshopped stars lined up at the bottom just look awkward, (except for Bill Murray, who looks awesome in everything). The black and yellow color scheme is distracting, and the center of the poster, where one’s attention is usually drawn, is dominated by the billing block - the most boring part of any movie poster. I don’t see why they didn’t just go with an image from the film itself, like the still below.
At the same time, it’s not like a shitty poster is going to keep me from watching The movie. Did I mention that Bill Murray is in it? I’m pretty sure I did.
Based on a true story and adapted from Robert M. Edsel’s The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, the film stars Clooney as George Stout, a man who starts up the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives program, which was founded in order to save pre-WWII art and other cultural artifacts from Adolf Hitler and the property-destroying Nazis. His team is comprised of Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, Jean Dujardin and Bill Murray. Cate Blanchett stars as Rose Valland, a member of the French Resistance and military who accounted for all of the French art that the Nazis stole and destroyed.
This is the second film to document these events, following John Frankenheimer’s 1964 war drama The Train, and Clooney has his work cut out for him if he wants Monuments Men to be the superior film. I tell you what though, the poster for The Train was a lot more exciting.
We’ll find out how good The Monuments Men is when the film releases in theaters on December 18. If the trailer is anything to go by, it looks like it’ll do just fine.
