The long-running satirical feud between Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon continued recently thanks to a hilarious skit that featured the late night host employing a bit of star power to help him take out his rival once and for all. Kimmel and Damon began their very public squabble in 2005 after the host ended one of his episodes by saying, “Apologies to Matt Damon, but we ran out of time.” The joke was that Damon was never scheduled to appear on his show in the first place, and since then, the pair have run with the gag for almost two decades.
In a skit shown on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he’s seen entering a room with a briefcase full of money that he presents to Brad Pitt and George Clooney, Damon’s Ocean’s Eleven co-stars who appear in the new movie Wolfs as two fixers for hire. When they ask Kimmel who the target is, he gives them a photo of Damon and says, “I need you to make sure he buys the zoo, if you know what I mean.” It’s a nice tongue-in-cheek reference to Damon’s 2011 film We Bought a Zoo, and is followed by Clooney and Pitt looking at one another before Pitt closes the briefcase and says, “We’ll do this one for free.” They go on to make a joke about Damon’s “adoring fans” before the skit closes. It’s a hilarious moment that keeps the Damon-Kimmel feud going, while at the same time showcasing what fans can expect from Pitt and Clooney in their new movie. Check it out below.
Despite Mixed Reactions, A Sequel to Wolfs Is Already in Development
Premiering at the Venice Film Festival on September 1 and hitting Apple TV+ on September 27 following a limited theatrical engagement, Wolfs’ reception from critics has been lukewarm thus far. MovieWeb’s own Mark Keizer says the film “feels like a eulogy for sophisticated capers like the Oceans series that helped make them [Pitt and Clooney] global superstars,” while Marshall Shaffer from Decider says that, “this sugar rush of watching two familiar faces interacting can only sustain a work so long in the absence of style or substance.” Ouch!
The reviews aren’t entirely bad, of course. Nicholas Barber from the BBC called Wolfs a “throwback to the days when Hollywood stars didn’t all play superheroes.” It’s almost a bygone era now, isn’t it? Kristy Puchko from Mashable adds, “Wolfs is a hoot in a way that feels almost vintage, but let’s go with timeless.”
Despite the mixed reception to Clooney and Pitt’s latest, however, work on a sequel has already begun. According to a report from Deadline last month, Jon Watts will return to write, direct, and produce the follow-up, which is expected to once again have its two stars as the leads. This is an enormous leap of faith from Apple, who haven’t had the best year at the box office and are looking to cut costs, but seem to be banking on the film to become a streaming success. With the star power of Pitt and Clooney, it’s hard to think otherwise, but the same was said of Killers of the Flower Moon, Argyle, and Napoleon, three films that all failed to meet financial expectations.
Will Wolfs be the latest in a string of let-downs for Apple? Possibly, but we’ll still have a lot of fun watching Clooney and Pitt work their magic together if for nothing more than a nice hit of dopamine as we’re taken back to a time when buddy-movies were all the rage.