George Clooney‘s The Monuments Men (Sony, 12.18) was research-screened Wednesday night in Sherman Oaks. A guy I know attended. Here’s an excerpt: “I don’t know how else a Hollywood treatment of this subject matter could have ended up. Clooney’s job was to direct an efficient film that was entertaining and convincingly dramatic, and he accomplished that. Judging from the responses around me, people were…moved and filled with laughter…enjoying the experience and touched at times.” This also: “Cate Blanchett’s French-accented performance stuck out…her hardened, mistrusting art historian was quite funny at times. Clooney gives himself the best scene towards the end when he sits down with a Nazi and explains the futility of an individual who fought on the wrong side.”

I guess my one-man campaign to persuade Sony and Clooney to drop the “The” from the title isn’t going to pan out. I swear to God it would sound cooler if they just called it Monuments Men. Note: I’m not linking to any general reviews at this point. Any postings of such will be removed.

Here’s a link to my 7.1 Monuments Men set-visit piece. The actual drop-by happened in Bad Grund, a small picturesque town in Germany’s Harz mountains, on 5.6.13.