In a career spanning several decades, George Clooney has appeared in plenty of massive blockbusters, but he also has some underrated gems. Clooney’s most popular movies include theOcean’strilogy,O Brother, Where Art Thou, Gravityand many more. His good looks and charisma have made him a bankable leading man in a variety of genres, but not all his movies get the love they deserve.
George Clooney and Brad Pittare set to team up once more for Apple TV’s new action-comedyWolfs,in which they play two combative fixers forced to work together. WhileWolfsis already generating plenty of excitement, some of Clooney’s movies have managed to fly under the radar in his career. Looking back at Clooney’s career, there are plenty of underrated comedies, sci-fi movies and actioners which deserve a second chance.
Solarisis the second big-screen adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s seminal sci-fi novel, after Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 version. Director Steven Soderbergh wanted to produce a more faithful adaptation, rather than trying to match Tarkovsky’s idiosyncratic approach.Solariswas a box office bomb, proving to be slow-paced and cerebral for general audiences, but its vision is admirable.
Solariswas a box office bomb, proving to be slow-paced and cerebral for general audiences, but its vision is admirable.
Solarisdoesn’t fit the mold of most big-budget sci-fi movies, since it has no action sequences. The space station and the alien planet are often being used as devices to enhance the personal tragedy of the story, and they fall away into being background details. WhatSolarisdoes have is a sense of thoughtful grandeur. It doesn’t use its outer-space imagery for cheap thrills. Every decision Soderbergh makes reflects Kelvin’s troubled state of mind.
Fantastic Mr. Foxis one ofWes Anderson’s best movies, but it marks the only time that the director has worked with George Clooney. Based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl,Fantastic Mr. Foxfollows a fox trying to settle down and raise a family, despite the fact that he can’t resist the excitement of his past as a chicken thief.Anderson’s script takes liberties with Dahl’s book, spinning a simplistic fable into a heist thriller and a moving family drama.
Clooney plays the titular fox, and his deep voice is perfect for capturing the tired, mature side to the character.
Clooney plays the titular fox, and his deep voice is perfect for capturing the tired, mature side to the character. Still, he retains an element of impish optimism that’s hard to resist.Fantastic Mr. Foxwas Wes Anderson’s first stop-motion animated movie, and the medium gave him full license to tailor every detail to his liking. The result is a richly inventive take on a popular story with artistic flourishes and wry sight gags in every corner of the frame.
Burn After Readingdeserves more love as an underratedCoen brothers movie. It hasn’t achieved the same level of popularity as some of their biggest hits, including George Clooney’sO Brother, Where Art Thou,but it’s a wonderfully complicated comedy with some great performances. Clooney plays a womanizer whose paranoid tendencies get the best of him in a strange game of espionage without any real spies.
Burn After Readinggives Clooney one of his best comedic roles, and he rises to the occasion.
Burn After Readinggives Clooney one of his best comedic roles, and he rises to the occasion.His scenes with Frances McDormand are a joy to watch, but he is at his best when his character is left alone with his own paranoid delusions. Clooney knows how to say a lot with a raised eyebrow or a silence that lingers for a second too long, and the audience can see his frantic thought process playing out in real time.
Intolerable Crueltysticks out as an oddity among the Coen brothers filmography, since it plays out as a more mainstream romcom than the duo would usually create. George Clooney plays Miles Massey, a highly sought-after divorce lawyer who has a reputation for protecting the assets of his clients even when facing a mountain of evidence. Catherine Zeta-Jones stars opposite him as a woman with a history of marrying for money.
Clooney and Zeta-Jones share an intoxicating dynamic inIntolerable Cruelty.
Clooney and Zeta-Jones share an intoxicating dynamic inIntolerable Cruelty. Although the movie mostly sees marriage through the lens of its financial and legal implications, the chemistry between the two leads is a reminder of what love and romance should be about. This highlights the absurd bureaucracy with which modern society treats marriage, which is a joke that runs throughoutIntolerable Cruelty.
During the Second World War, German forces looted countless artworks as they sought to expand their empire.The Monuments Mentells the incredible true story of a group of American soldiers who were tasked with recovering the missing art in Europe. George Clooney stars as the group’s leader, and he is supported by an impressive cast including Matt Damon, Bill Murray and John Goodman.
The Monuments Menhas plenty of funny moments, but it also raises some interesting debates about the role of art and culture within society.
The Monuments Menhas plenty of funny moments, as any movie with so many comedic talents is bound to have, but it also raises some interesting debates about the role of art and culture within society. While millions were fighting on the front lines, some people saw the Monuments Men as a uniquely frivolous organization, concerned with preserving paintings rather than human life.The Monuments Menshows the importance of art and cultural heritage, underlining the way that war can crush the most joyous parts of the human spirit.
Three years before his first appearance intheOcean’sfranchise, George Clooney starred in another heist movie by Steven Soderbergh. Clooney plays a career bank robber who starts a flirtatious back-and-forth with the U.S. Marshal tasked with bringing him to justice. He and Jennifer Lopez share a fiery repartee, with Clooney the more playful and laid-back of the two.
He and Jennifer Lopez share a fiery repartee, with Clooney the more playful and laid-back of the two.
Out of Sighthas a more farcical tone thanOcean’s Eleven,but the two movies share a lot of similarities. Jack Foley and Danny Ocean are both charismatic criminals who the audience can’t help but root for. Still,Out of Sightis sexier and more dangerous.It’s a must-watch for fans of theOcean’strilogy, but it’s a great crime comedy on its own merits, and it marked a turning point in Clooney’s career.
George Clooney gets to try his hand at being an action star inThe American,although the movie isn’t as fast-paced and thrilling as fans of the espionage genre have come to expect.The Americanis more John le Carré than Ian Fleming, and more interested in tension than action. The script drags out the long periods of waiting, although it does occasionally give way to frantic bursts of violence.
The Americantreats its audience to some stunning Italian locations, but its approach to the espionage genre is otherwise much less glamorous.
The Americantreats its audience to some stunning Italian locations, but its approach to the espionage genre is otherwise much less glamorous. The protagonist, who changes his name to blend in, is a man doing his job, and Clooney gives an astutely subdued performance. He is still interesting to watch, but he dials back his charm.The Americanshows a slightly different side to his acting skills.
George Clooney leads a brilliant ensemble cast inHail, Caesar,a Coen brothers comedy set in the glory days of Old Hollywood. Josh Brolin plays a studio fixer who is charged with keeping a long list of pampered stars out of trouble and out of the tabloids. Clooney plays one of the many actors giving him grief, along with Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson and many more.
George Clooney leads a brilliant ensemble cast inHail, Caesar,a Coen brothers comedy set in the glory days of Old Hollywood.
Hail, Caesarhas a fairly loose structure. The main story concerns Clooney’s character being kidnapped by a group of Communist Hollywood writers who try to convince him of their ideology. This plot is juxtaposed by more whimsical vignettes of the hectic studio. These scenes play out like comedy sketches, with Alden Ehrenreich standing out as a gruff Western actor who finds himself struggling to keep up when he’s cast in a P. G. Wodehouse-style comedy-of-manners.
The Midnight Skyis a post-apocalyptic disaster movie directed by and starring George Clooney. He plays a scientist who has dedicated his life to finding habitable moons and exoplanets, until a mysterious crisis on Earth decimates the human population. He makes it his mission to contact a spacecraft on its way back home so that he can warn the astronauts not to return to Earth.
The Midnight Skyhas an intriguing sci-fi story to back up the visual splendor.
The Midnight Skyis a slow-paced drama, drawing visual parallels between the vast emptiness of space and the bleak landscape of the Arctic Circle. Clooney’s direction throws up plenty of awe-inspiring images, butThe Midnight Skyalso has an intriguing sci-fi story to back up the visual splendor. The big twist may resolve some of the emotional drama, but it leaves several enticing mysteries unsolved.
George Clooney’s directing careerstarted off strong withConfessions of a Dangerous Mind,which tells the story of Chuck Barris, as he sees it. Barris was a game show host and TV producer in the 1960s and 1970s who inventedThe Gong ShowandThe Dating Game.He claimed in his autobiography that he was also an assassin for the CIA who used his job in TV as cover.
Confessions of a Dangerous Minddoesn’t debate the veracity of Barris' autobiography. It simply treats it as a great story.
Barris' claims have been denied by the CIA, and most people see it as little more than an entertaining fantasy from a man who spent his life in show business.Confessions of a Dangerous Minddoesn’t debate the veracity of Barris' autobiography. It simply treats it as a great story, regardless of whether it’s true or not. Sam Rockwell delivers a charming performance as Barris, while Clooney plays his suave CIA handler.
