The Monuments Men and monumental platters of grilled meat.

To me, George Clooney is the greatest living American, but alas, Matt Zoller Seitz's review at RogerEbert.com pretty much nails The Monuments Men: "This is not a terrible movie. It's just not consistently good enough to get excited about."

Directed by Clooney from a script he wrote with his regular filmmaking partner Grant Heslov, "The Monuments Men" is a throwback to a very specific type of World War II adventure picture: a star-studded adventure made between ten and 20 years after the war's end. Such films were aimed at a morally exhausted U.S. audience that wanted to be congratulated for its role in ending tyranny—however large or small or nonexistent it might have been—but that also wished to be entertained, preferably with a caper, a romance, and knowing jokes about bureaucrats and regulations.

However, here's something to get excited about: A blow-out evening at Palermo Viejo Authentic Argentine Restaurant on Bardstown Road in Louisville.

We dined there with friends following the movie; service, quality and ambience is excellent, and reasonably priced, too: Cocktails, a beer, a bottle of Malbec, two appetizers and two entrees brought us to $100 before gratuity. Grilled meats remain the house specialty, but a relatively simple house salad was a noteworthy highlight. Now it's back to the trudge and gruel ... and that's okay. It was a quality evening out.

Photo credit: MG