Some movies are just good enough. And that’s ok. There’s something to be said for a little better than mediocre film animated by star power. Wolfs is such a picture.

At the start, the film feels serious. A tough-on-crime District Attorney (Amy Ryan) takes a much younger man (Austin Abrams) upstairs at an expensive hotel for a furtive romantic enough. Unfortunately, secret fun turns to tragedy when the Kid falls off the bed and into a glass bar cart, seemingly dying. In desperation, she reaches out to a cleaner (George Clooney). As he drives to her, writer-director Jon Watts and cinematographer Larkin Seiple give the scene an almost Michael Mann quality. Well, Mann with less interesting lighting and a firmly adult contemporary soundtrack.

When Brad Pitt shows up as the hotel’s designated fixer, however, that serious to admittedly self-serious tone goes away. In its place, the film embraces a sort of low-level Odd Couple grumbling comedy. The dueling cleaners try to assert their superiority over each other, all while trying to hide their signs of aging from each other. To Wolfs’ credit, they don’t go to the well of bad backs, eroding vision, and barely contained yawns too often. On the other hand, when they do, the gags land with a smile or, at most, a gentle chuckle. If you were planning to watch the movie for a few hearty guffaws, you’d do well to look elsewhere.

And that’s fine. There’s nothing in Wolfs to suggest its ambition is to become the reigning funniest crime-comedy. Instead, Watts’ script lays out a gentle hangout film with underworld trappings. There’s a ticking clock, but no one seems especially inclined to keep an eye on it. There are various collections of ethnic gangster types with guns, but even when the bullets fly, nothing feels especially threatening. The feature is about as interested in tweaking your adrenal gland as it is in finding your funny bone.

In fact, the biggest attempt at action hijinks, a car and foot race through New York City’s Chinatown, is possibly the film’s one true misstep. It’s overlong and not especially thrilling. Strangely, it never even attempts a “these guys are aging” joke despite their pursuit of a quarry less than half either of their ages. At 108 minutes, Wolfs isn’t exactly fatty. And yet, it still would benefit from halving that chase scene’s running time.

The film’s at its best when it lets the stars speak to and unravel their bullshit “men with a code” lone wolf (like the title!) masculinity. In a certain light, it’s a heightened story of what so many men face on the far side of middle age. They want to connect, they want friends. Alas, years of bad habits and outdated expectations have rendered them too grumpy and too scared to reach out.

Predictably, they thaw, both to each other and to the young man they unexpectedly find themselves shepherding around the city in search of a way to dump a significant amount of illegal drugs. To the leads’ credit, though, Clooney in particular, they maintain a certain icy distance right up to the film’s conclusion. A conversation between the two about the very likely possibility they’ll have to kill their clueless charge favors resignation and low-level callousness from both. Both know they don’t want to do it, but they’re also both too professional not to ensure their possible victim has any way to escape.

In most other ways, Clooney also fares better than Pitt. The muted “I am my job and nothing else” quality they’re both called to deliver is far more in the slightly older star’s wheelhouse. It’s a level he has no problem finding and riding to maximum effect. Pitt, conversely, tends to grey out a bit at that volume. At 60, he still is at his best tweaking being the smoothest dude in the room (see: the Oceans’ films) or bringing a specific fidgety energy to bear (think of almost any other Pitt role you’ve enjoyed from 12 Monkeys forward). Poking fun at himself and his friend in hush tones gives him less space to do either of the things he does best.

It’s ultimately easy to find reasons to criticize Wolfs. Re-read the paragraphs above for evidence of that. But it is a movie that sends you on your way with a smile on your face and a little bounce in your stride. Save for the chase scene, it never feels long or slow despite its decidedly unhurried pacing. The stars have a nice, easy chemistry with each other. More importantly, the cameras just eat them up. It’s not that they don’t look like middle-aged men—albeit extremely handsome and in shape, but in a crazy way, middle-aged men. It’s that they look like the best-case scenario for people in their demographic. They can be quick physically, and they’re always quick-witted in a way that feels natural.

Wolfs is a cool late-night hang. Its only ambition is to ensure you have fun and get you to bed in one piece. Sometimes, movies are just good enough. Watching one of those isn’t a bad way to spend less than two hours of your life.

Wolfs cleans things up in selected theaters on September 20 before showing up on AppleTV+ September 27.

Wolfs Trailer: