Lukewarm, Lacking In Substance

Rating: 1/10 (10 September 2018)

The title of my review says it all. This movie is, on the whole, bland, uninteresting, and unexciting.
Let me sum up the plot, bland and uninteresting as it is. George Clooney plays a professional axe-man, someone who works for what used to be known as an outplacement firm and makes his living by firing people as well as giving motivational speeches on the side. He does a couple of things to make himself look good and then continues as if nothing happened. The end. I just saved you the time and trouble of having to see it.
And that's one of the things that's wrong with the movie. His character doesn't change.
He's proud of what he does to the point of smugness, but he's an empty shell. His only real joy in life is being able to accumulate traveller points so that he can get priority service in fancy hotels as well as being a member of the elite club of credit card holders. But he has no soul, emotion, or, it would seem, conscience. He cold-bloodedly tells people that they're sacked and then makes some insultingly cloying statements about them having a bright shiny future because they were canned. The fact that he's helped destroy their lives has absolutely no effect on him.
But the other main characters are equally as unlikable.
He meets someone else who's also away from home a lot on business eventually becoming attracted to her. But she turns out to be not what he thinks she is.
His junior colleague is an immature, inexperienced millennial snowflake. She doesn't appreciate that what she does affects people, though she finally gets a hint. The audience is told that second-hand; the movie would have been better if it showed her reaction.
His boss isn't any different, having the personality of a frozen kipper.
It's a mystery to me how this movie managed to earn several Oscar nominations. There's nothing of substance in it. The actors seem to be bored with their roles and their performances appear to have been mailed in. Many of the scenes are redundant and could easily have been cut because they don't show anything new. In addition, the musical soundtrack is annoying.
This movie is a complete waste of time.