Wolfs Review: George Clooney and Brad Pitt on Auto-Pilot

   September 28, 2024
george clooney and brad pitt in wolfs movie
Brad Pitt and George Clooney in Wolfs (2024), directed by Jon Watts

Score: 5/10

The appeal of Jon Watts’ Wolfs is obvious. The movie serves as the long-awaited reunion between George Clooney and Brad Pitt. The two mega movie stars have shared the screen for a handful of projects over the years, most notably the Ocean’s franchise and Burn After Reading.

This time, Clooney and Pitt are competing “fixers” that incidentally appear at a woman’s hotel room one night to clean up the same job, having been called by two separate involved parties. The job is simple on the surface: make a young man’s dead body disappear and make it seem as though he never met the woman Margaret (played by Amy Ryan).

But circumstances get much more complicated and muddied when they find a load of drugs in a bag belonging to the man, as well as when they discover the individual (played by Austin Abrams) is still alive and trying to escape.

Thus begins a crazy night filled with extended chase sequences and a conspiracy that runs much deeper than either of the hired wolfs could’ve imagined. The night will surely be memorable for the two, but unfortunately, that is not conveyed or transferred the viewer watching the whole movie play out.

Because Wolfs rarely offers any food-for-thought or extended action sequences to write home about. Clooney and Pitt are front and center, and while it is endearing and noteworthy to have the two back together, they don’t seem to have much of an interest in making the film memorable.

Jon Watts is the writer and director of Wolfs, marking his first non-MCU movie in nearly a decade following the Tom Holland Spider-Man trilogy, and it is evident that he is either shaking off the rust, or a middling director that was elevated by the franchise’s material.

Because Watts’ script is often too shallow, and the action isn’t unique enough to pick up the slack. The wintery theme is a nice touch, but this straight-to-Apple TV, blasé romp has been tried over and over again, to usually better results – including, oddly enough, one of Clooney’s own movies. Michael Clayton is significantly more interesting and contains rabbit holes that far exceed what Wolfs has. Michael Clayton wants to stick around and entertain you, while Wolfs can’t wait to get to the end.

This should have been way more fun, or at least had way more personality. Unfortunately, George Clooney and Brad Pitt are on auto-pilot for much of Wolfs, as if they’re begging through the television screen to let this film be over.

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