The Monuments Men (2014)

The Allied movement to save masterpiece artworks from Nazi theft or torch in the closing days of World War II already inspired 1964 classic “The Train.” That superb movie churned on tense action, ditched talk to the curb, and let the audience decide if a man’s life –- or that of an entire village -– was worth the price of a Renoir. Paint on canvas, or culture? George Clooney’s “The Monuments Men” takes the American view of the same mission with a deep love of square WWII dramas, and gives us a definitive answer that, yes, art is worth dying for. It’s spoken. Aloud. Repeatedly. Clooney directs and stars along with Matt Damon, Bill Murray, and Cate Blanchett, among others, and all are solid. Watch war-weary Murray listen to a home-made record from his daughter and try not to get goose bumps. But, man, we don’t much of a look at the art that these men and women are spending their lives on. The why. If you want to see the art at the dramatic center, hit the Web, Clooney’s camera is shy. My love of “Train” may be biased. Marvelous ending with Clooney’s real pop. B

The Train (1964)

John Frankenheimer’s World War II “The Train” is a classic beyond compare. Maybe the grimy, sweaty black and white photography gets in the way? No idea. This film is perfect. Burt Lancaster plays French railway manager Labiche, a control freak who reluctantly and then obsessively plays out a suicide mission to stop a Nazi colonel (Paul Scofield) from looting France of its most treasured historic art -- irreplaceable Monets and Picassos, etc. The genius plot trick: Labiche and his fellow saboteurs don’t care a whit about the paintings. This is personal pride, and screwing the Nazis. At the end in eerie imagery, our star and director sternly ask if even one life violently sacrificed to save paintings or any other treasure, land, or national pride, is worth the toll. War is fruitless. Another reason to endlessly love this film: The destruction of a massive rail yard and a three-way way crash between three engines are shot in-camera, single takes. These scenes astound. You can near smell the ash and smoke. Lancaster does his own stunts, sliding down ladders and jumping trains, with Scofield’s villain as one for the ages. Quite possibly my favorite film ever. This is epic film-making. A+

Iron Sky (2012)

“Iron Sky” has the greatest story pitch ever: Nazis from the dark side of the moon attack Earth using flying saucers. How crazy cool is that? Much of this Finnish-German-Austrian B-flick -– special effects, political satire aimed at American bravado and U.N. incompetence -- is hilarious fun, but there’s so much more that falls flat like a bad sci-fi version of “Springtime for Hitler” from “Producers.” Put bluntly, the trailer is better than the movie, the latter fumbled by flat acting and ugly stereotypes, as in all black youth pack Glocks. The gravest error: Great actor Udo Kier (“Suspiria”) plays the Fuhrer II, does nothing but die halfway in, replaced by a C-grade henchman. Why!?! The lead characters are a Nazi schoolmarm with clue zero; a black astronaut turned white by drugs; and a Sarah Palin clone as president who decorates the Oval Office with dead polar bears. Palin jokes were funny in 2009. Never funny: A Nazi scientist made to look like Einstein, a Jew who fled Hitler’s grip. “Sky” thinks its guns are as big as Tarantino’s “Basterds” and “Django” history remixes, but these barrels fire blanks. So much promise wasted. C+

The Debt (2011)

A smart thriller of morals, ethics, and revenge among a trio of Mossad agents played out during the 1960s with Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain and Marton Csokas, and then in the 1990s with Ciarán Hinds, Helen Mirren, and Tom Wilkinson. The 1960s mission: Capture an ex-Nazi hiding in East Berlin as a gynecologist, and bring him to trial. The 1990s mission: Ensure the tale of what really happened never sees light. When “Debt” focuses on the mission, Jewish anger, and guilt, it is damn exciting. See, Chastain’s agent must kidnap the decrepit Nazi during a pelvic exam, half naked and her feet in stirrups. It’s a riveting scene from director John Madden, who made “Shakespeare in Love.” Yet, the past and present tug-and-pull hardly holds, Worthington becomes Hinds, and Csokas becomes Wilkinson, and the paired men look so vastly different, I kept getting hopelessly lost. To worsen matters, Worthington’s Israeli accent vibes to distraction with the actor’s native Australia cadence. Add in a Hollywood OTT ending, and this remake of a 1990s Israeli film (which I have not seen) suffers. B

The Boys From Brazil (1978)

“The Boys From Brazil” is a mash-up paranoid mystery/Nazi thriller from the twisted mind of Ira Levine (the novels “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Stepford Wives”). With classic actors. Here, Gregory Peck drinks everyone’s milkshake as a fictionalized version of Josef Mengele, living in South America and working SS-style decades after World War II. Fellow movie god Laurence Olivier grabs a straw, too, and slurps right back as Nazi hunter and all-around eccentric Ezra Lieberman. The climax has the men meet for a gloriously violent, over-the-top battle in a seemingly quaint Lancaster County, Pa., home. Delicious. I spent summer there as a child. Several plot strands (a captive South American boy) are left aside, and Steve Guttenberg is unconvincing as a young Nazi hunter who sets the plot going, but the climax is sick, lovely mind-screw Levine. Bonus points: Scariest screen child ever, over “Omen” and some (bleeped) up dogs. Not high art, not meant to be, but damn fine 1970s entertainment. B+