You don’t even have to have watched many movies to know whoGeorge Clooneyis, since for a while, he was known as “That guy onER.” Well, at least that’s how it was for some of the 1990s, but even by the end of that decade, he was well-established as a movie star, and then the 2000s saw further success in front of the camera… and a little success behind it, too, seeing as Clooney has also directed his fair share of films since 2002, when his directorial debut,Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, came out.
In all that time, though, there have been a handful of misfires, including the soon-to-be-mentioned movies. Of these, Clooney starred in some and was also the director of a handful; less-than-stellar films in either camp count, for present ranking purposes. Also,to counterbalance the negativity, you may check out some of thebest stuff Clooney’s been a part of here.
8’Ocean’s Twelve' (2004)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
This one might be a hot take, butOcean’s Twelveis at least disappointing compared to what came before. There was an effortlessness toOcean’s Eleventhat made itwork exceptionally well as a heist movie, but that coolness is replaced by this sense of over-eagerness to be clever inOcean’s Twelve. It’s an oddly smug film, and it feels like it’s trying a bit too hard.
That’s not automatically a terrible thing, butwhen there’s an all-star castand a seeming sense to be both breezy and entertaining, desperation on a filmmaking front is not going to help matters.Ocean’s Twelveis just a bit much, to the point where a slight feeling of “getting back to basics” helpedOcean’s Thirteenbe an improvement. Still, neither can touch 2001’sOcean’s Eleven,but as far as not-great George Clooney movies go, things do get worse. Speaking of…
Ocean’s Twelve
7’Leatherheads' (2008)
Directed by George Clooney
After finding some success withConfessions of a Dangerous Mindand more success withGood Night, and Good Luck, George Clooney kind of struck out withLeatherheads. It was his third feature film as director andsaw him tackling the sports genre, with the premise here revolving around the early years (the 1920s) of American football being played at a professional level.
It also tries to be a comedy on top of being a sports drama, and romance plays a role in the story here, too, makingLeatherheadsfeel kind of overstuffed and a little too messy for its own good.Maybe the intent was to have the whole thing be scrappy in a somewhat endearing way, but the execution was just a bit off. Hey, you could do worse, but there are also reasons whyLeatherheadsis pretty obscure nowadays, despite the involvement of George Clooney and other well-known stars likeRenée ZellwegerandJohn Krasinski.
Leatherheads
6’Suburbicon' (2017)
Speaking of talented peoplebeing involved in flawed movies, here’sSuburbicon, which feels a bit like a Coen Brothers movie ordered from wish.com. That makes some sense considering two of the credited writers here areJoelandEthan Coen, and the cast has some big names in it, including three usually great actors who’ve worked with the Coen Brothers before: Matt Damon,Julianne Moore, andOscar Isaac.
But the Coens didn’t directSuburbicon; George Clooney did. And it’s one of his lesser films as a director, in all honesty, working briefly here and there, but coming together into something that, as a whole, proves underwhelming and forgettable. It aims to be a dark comedy about a home invasion that goes wrong and leads to some unforeseen consequences, but itall falls apart a bit after a point. It’s one of those films where you finish it underwhelmed, and even if it’s not abysmal, it’s also hard to resist thinking about what could’ve been.
Suburbicon
5’The Monuments Men' (2014)
Disappointing enough that it descends beyond mediocrity and becomes something pretty bad,The Monuments Menhas an exceptional cast, sure, but little else that could even come close to being called exceptional. It sounds exciting, too, with a premise that involves various people associated with the world of art entering into World War II to try and take back stolen art from those associated with Nazi Germany.
So,Inglourious Basterds, but about art? Or a slightly more restrainedThe Dirty Dozen?Saving Private RyanbutRyan’sin it and it’s artwork that needs saving instead? No,The Monuments Menis, instead, just toodreary and tedious as a war movie.Its attempts at action and showcasing thrills fall limp, and all it really does, at best, is dramatize a somewhat interesting real-life story. Still, the people involved probably deserved a better movie to showcase what they managed to do.
The Monuments Men
4’Tomorrowland' (2015)
Moving away from George Clooney’s directorial efforts now, here’s another disappointing movie he was associated with:Tomorrowland. It’s naturally harder to blame him for this one, though, asTomorrowlandis mostly disappointing on account of it being directed byBrad Birdwho, prior to 2015, had put out pretty much nothing but bangers (namely,The Iron Giant, The Incredibles,Ratatouille, andMission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol).
Songwriter/philosopherNelly Furtadoonce mourned the idea thatall good things come to an end, and so was the case with Brad Bird’s run as a filmmaker.Tomorrowlandwas a pretty big letdown, failing to make its family-friendly sci-fi/mystery storyline work. All the film did, in the end, was look very expensive while making very little by way of money, and not doing much better critically, either.
Tomorrowland
3’Return of the Killer Tomatoes!' (1988)
Directed by John De Bello
To the surprise of hopefully no one,Return of the Killer Tomatoes!cannot count itself among George Clooney’s best efforts as an actor, becauseeven by 1980s B-movie standards, it’s pretty lazy stuff. Yes, it’s obviously supposed to be a jokey movie, what with the title beingReturn of the Killer Tomatoes!and all, but if you make a movie that’s a joke, said joke does have to be funny. Case in point, another George Clooney horror film: 1996’sFrom Dusk Till Dawn.
Return of the Killer Tomatoes!is probably only interesting for anyone wanting to see Clooney star in something pre-ER, because those roles are pretty rare and obscure. Perhaps the man himself would like this one to remain kind of obscure, but it’s always going to attract some attention when the title promises tomatoes that kill. This is the part where something like “Just stick to the originalAttack of the Killer Tomatoes!instead could be said,”but that one’s not very good either. Your time is finite and precious, after all, so maybe just stay away.
Return of the Killer Tomatoes!
2’Batman & Robin' (1997)
Directed by Joel Schumacher
If you thought picking on the tomato movie was low-hanging fruit,things get worse (or lower-hanging?) here, because yep, it’s the film most people think of when they hear the phrase “bad George Clooney movie.”Batman & Robinpushed the campier side of Batman to near-unbearable limits, proving novel in just how goofy and stylized it was willing to get, sure, but that vision was also exhausting, repetitive, and inevitably underwhelming.
Well, it’s strange that it can underwhelm as a movie while also being so visually and aurally overwhelming, but that’s the “magic” ofBatman & Robin.It sent nipples– sorry, no… itsent ripples throughout theBatmanfandom, and necessitated adifferent approach come 2005. To Clooney’s credit, his career recovered after this, and everyone else in the movie’s at theirworst, or near-worst, too, includingArnold Schwarzenegger, who simultaneously seems confused and keen to chew as much scenery as possible.
Batman & Robin
1’Grizzly II: Revenge' (2020)
Directed by André Szöts
Without a doubt,the story behind the production and eventual releaseofGrizzly II: Revengeis more interesting than what happens in the movie itself. Parts were filmed as early as 1983, though the film wasn’t released officially until 2020, and in that time, various actors in the film who were relatively obscure in the early 1980s had become big stars (namely, George Clooney,Laura Dern, andCharlie Sheen).
The movie itself is just about a rampaging grizzly bear that attacks people attending a rock concert, all done in a scrappy and tediousway that isn’t really worth remembering.Grizzly II: Revengeis instead just a curiosity because of the people who happened to feature in it (even if briefly), andit’sthe sort of bad horror movieyou don’t need to spend time actually watching. Justread up a little on the historyinstead, if you truly feel compelled to do so.
Grizzly II: Revenge
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