Review: The Monuments Men (2014)

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So, I'm doing reviews on and off lately. School has gotten pretty hectic lately, so there are some weeks where I don't have much time to watch/write anything, so just bear with me for a little while. But this week, I do have a review for you all.

A week or so ago, my parents and I got to see The Monuments Men, which is about how the Nazis stole precious art from various places around Europe. It seemed interesting and since we all like history and were looking for something to do over the weekend, my parents and I went to see it. I was surprised to see that Bill Murray was in this movie, considering he tends to do comedic roles, but I also saw that Hugh Bonneville was in this movie as well, so I looked forward to his acting.

Synopsis
Set towards the end of WWII, The Monuments Men follows a group of civilian men that accompanies the Allied forces to Europe. Their mission: to recover pieces of art that have been stolen by the Nazis to fill Hitler's intended Fuehrer Museum. Their goal is to preserve the culture and history that has been built up in Europe over centuries from destruction from the war and to collect the pieces and return them to their rightful owners before the Nazi destroy them.

Review: Upstairs Downstairs - Series 2 (2012)

Took me long enough to review this. I actually watched Upstairs, Downstairs: Series 2 when it aired on PBS last year, but I ended up pushing this review back further and further, adding to it little by little until now. As you may remember, I was not a fan of the first series of the reboot of Upstairs, Downstairs, but I watched Series 2 hoping that it would get better. Though I didn't think it would live up to the original series, I still watched and expected it to be a decent period drama. How did I find it? Well, read on!

Note: This review contains spoilers from Series 1 of Upstairs, Downstairs. If you do not want to run into spoilers, then do not read this review. If you want to read up on Series 1, you can find it here.

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Synopsis
The story starts just before England entered WWII. Lady Agnes Holland has given birth to her second child, but does not have any more hopes of having any more children. Hallam's aunt, Blanche Mottershead, has moved in with the Hollands after the death of Hallam's mother, Lady Maud. Lady Persie returns from Germany after a riot breaks out and resettles back in 165 Eaton Place seeming to renounce her Nazi views. There is also some additions to the staff: Beryl Ballard as the new nursery maid and Eunice McCabe as the new kitchen maid.

Review: The Remains of the Day

In one of my classes for a couple of days, we watched this movie (and I am far from objecting to watching movies in class, especially if they're period dramas). So I hadn't known too much about this movie other than Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins were in there. And since it takes place before the 1950s, I decided I would review it and still call it period (my cut off for period dramas is the 1950s, but I'm thinking of expanding it to 1959. Thoughts?). So, here we go.

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Synopsis
Mr. James Stevens, the butler of Darlington Hall located in Oxfordshire, has been the butler to previous owner Lord Darlington, but after Lord Darlington died, an American congressman, Mr. Lewis, buys Darlington Hall and becomes Mr. Stevens's new boss. Mr. Stevens receives a letter from his former housekeeper, Miss Kenton (now Mrs. Benn) who reveals that her and her husband have separated and that she may be interested in returning to Darlington Hall.

The film flashes back and forth between post WWII England to pre-WWII England when Miss Kenton arrived at Darlington Hall and worked there for a couple of years before marrying Mr. Benn.