Wolfs Review
This weekend we got a new movie on Apple TV+, Wolfs starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt. I was very excited for this movie based on the trailer, cast, premise, and director. How is the movie? Is it any good? Let’s talk about it!
The Good
The best thing about this movie is George Clooney and Brad Pitt. They were the big reasons why I was looking forward to this movie and they’re just as fun as you’d expect them to be. Ocean’s Eleven is one of my favorite movies of all time, so getting a reunion with them sounded like a great idea. When you take two charismatic movie stars and put them together you get something fun and enjoyable to watch. Especially with the concept of the movie, it allows for them to ooze charisma and fun. Where they’re two people that are great at their job but don’t want to work together, but based on the circumstances of the movie they have to. You get these two unlikely people having to come together to clean up a mess left by a client. Even the plot of the movie and the tone of it, it feels like this could easily be in the same universes as Ocean’s Eleven.
I also think Jon Watts did a solid job directing the movie. He’s most well known for directing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy. While two of those movies are great and a lot of fun, I don’t feel like he got to shine as a director. The types of movies they were, felt more studio made then director made. This movie allows for him to shine as a director a bit more. What he does a really good job at doing is setting up the pieces early on to have them pay off later on in the movie. It’s subtle things he does, things he might focus on a second too long. You know it’s going to come back into play at some point, but you aren’t sure how. It’s set up stuff that’s either for the plot or just jokes that have pay off later on, but the jokes work and they land because of the setup. Even the way he shoots the dynamic sequences like a chase sequence or dance sequence, it’s fun and easy to watch.
As it is a mystery with Clooney and Pitt trying to figure things out, I thought it did a good job with the mystery and keeping you guessing. From the very beginning of the movie, I was very curious to see where this was going and what the final scenes of the movie was going to be. As the movie went along, it would reveal certain information while raising more questions. So you’re always engaged in the plot and you want to know what’s going to happen next because of the storytelling and the fun vibe of the movie.
Finally, the movie does have a really nice sense of humor to it. I’ll say the movie is probably funnier in the first half of the movie, but all throughout the movie you get these great jokes that are set up jokes from things earlier on. Or just the fun banter that comes from Clooney and Pitt and their fun personalities. This is the type of movie that I wish I was able to see in a theater with a crowd of people, this seems like a crowd pleaser.
The Bad
I think this movie has the issues that most other streaming original movies have, it’s not as good as it could have been. Given the cast and the back end synopsis of it, I feel like you’d expect this movie to be better. I saw some reviews calling it one of the worst of the year and really crapping on it, I think that’s a bit far-fetched. But you can imagine that with a smarter script and even more compelling side characters, this movie could have been very good. But I think this version is a good solid buddy cop type film with two charismatic movie stars, that maybe isn’t the best version that it could be.
Also, there’s some laps in the logic of certain scenes that don’t quite add up. As you’re watching it you’re thinking to yourself “wait a minute, couldn’t they just do that” or “wouldn’t it be easier if they did this”. Especially when these characters are presented as being the best at what they do. There’s some scenes here where you don’t always feel that way. There’s points where the characters have to act dumb in order for parts of the plot to play out and for certain scenes and moments to happen. Jon Watts wrote and directed this movie, I think maybe he needed to have co-wrote this movie with somebody else to make the script a bit better.
Lastly, there’s some ideas and scenes in the third act that I don’t think were fully developed. I don’t wanna spoil anything as to what happens in the third act, but they do some stuff with Clooney’s character that feels like it should have this big payoff to something earlier in the movie. But I don’t feel like the movie properly earned those moments, therefore they fell a bit flat and felt out of place. They didn’t quite match the tone of the rest of the movie.
Final Thoughts: In general, Wolfs was a fun movie that I was never bored by, but you can imagine a better version of this movie with a better and smarter script. There’s still plenty of fun to be had here, George Clooney and Brad Pitt are just as fun as you’d expect them to be. If you’re looking for a fun movie to watch one night, this is one I’d recommend.
The Score: 8.3/10 (B)
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