Georgle Clooney's Monuments Men looked like it could be a player in this year's awards race, but it had to be pushed back to February in order to work on the special effects and find the tone of the story.  For those who are unfamiliar with the film, it’s based on a true story about soldiers and historians who have to go to Germany during World War II to rescue artistic masterpieces before they’re destroyed by the Nazis.  The first trailer made the film look confused and mediocre, but now an international trailer has gone online, and the movie looks like it's in much better shape.  The humor is sharper, the story is better laid out, and the stakes are more clearly defined.  There's even a little grin about the premise having a bit of an Ocean's Eleven vibe when Matt Damon's character asks Clooney, "Aren't you a little old for this?"  I have high hopes for the film, and this new trailer finally makes me excited for what Clooney has put together.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, John Goodman, Bob Balaban, and Bill Murray.  The Monuments Men opens February 7, 2014.

Via Daily Mail.

Here’s the official synopsis for The Monuments Men:

Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action-thriller focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners.  It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys – seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 – possibly hope to succeed?  But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind’s greatest achievements.