Inside This Movie Are Two Wolfs

Apple TV+ is not just in the business of hosting some of the best television series on streaming; they're also in the movie business. (They won the first Best Picture Oscar for a movie released on a streaming platform, much to Netflix's annoyance.) Not all their movies are plays for prestige, though. Sometimes, they're just there to have fun... as was very much the case with Wolfs.

The "fixer" is a staple of crime films -- the nameless, no-nonsense operative who sweeps in at a desperate moment to make a problem go away. When a man dies in a district attorney's hotel room, the D.A. calls such a man to help her... without knowing the hotel owner has also called a fixer to the scene. The two "wolfs" must work together, much to their mutual annoyance, to deal with a problem that turns out to be a good deal more complex than thought.

That's the summary of the plot of Wolfs, but it's not the best way to summarize the movie. That would be this: did you like Ocean's Eleven? Want to see George Clooney and Brad Pitt banter with each other for another couple of hours, playing similar characters? Wolfs is for you.

There is no new ground being broken in this movie. This is another entry in the subgenre of "bickering rivals forced to work together" -- a subgenre so full that no one person could ever watch them all. But such movies are much like a rom-com -- they ultimately live or die by the chemistry of the two leads, and whether audiences want to see them together. Sign me up for the mini Ocean's Eleven reunion, please.

The movie isn't totally devoid of surprise. (And you might find it has even more surprises if you avoid the trailer.) You get plenty of action too, from chases to shoot-outs. Writer-director Jon Watts, who's behind all the MCU Spider-Man movies, knows a thing or two about making a crowd-pleasing confection of an action movie, and while he may not be at the top of his game here, I'd say he still pulls out a win.

But, at the risk of repeating myself, Clooney and Pitt are The Reason to watch the movie. I find the two (separately, and as a duo) to have vastly more personality than other A-listers who might anchor a movie like this. They infuse the dialogue with an energetic pop. And the fact that they're probably getting too old for a movie like this is a topic explored in the movie itself.

If you don't like them? (Again, separately, or as a duo.) Then I guarantee this movie is NOT for you. It won me over, though -- enough for a B+, and a slot in my Top 10 Movies of 2024 list. (Albeit in the lower half, that section of the list where it's probably more a matter of me not having seen the right movies yet rather than having truly found one of the best of the year.) Wolfs is a movie that delivers exactly what it promises.