It's hard to tell if George Clooney's new film 'The Monuments Men' will be an Oscar favorite even though it's being released in the midst of the prestige season. The latest trailer plays up the possibility that this could be a real contender, but one thing is for sure, it's got a great cast that includes Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett and John Goodman.

Where early on this looked a little more like a World War II 'Ocean's Eleven' film (perhaps the reteaming of Damon and Clooney gave it that impression), but there seems to be a more serious movie underneath. On top of which the Academy are suckers for war films. This stands a real shot at Oscar gold, but more importantly, it looks good.

'The Monuments Men' opens December 18. Here's the film's synopsis:

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.

More From ScreenCrush