Those Who Wish Me Dead

A "Good, Old Fashioned" -{ B i g }- Screen Review .

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Hannah : " I should have gone to them, and instead I was a ( expletive ) Coward " .

Ryan : " Then you'd be dead too " .

Hannah : " ..... That's Our -{ JOB }- " .

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Let me start with the -{ Unbelievably }- natural 12 year old ( when the movie was filmed ) child-actor, native Australian Finn Little ( 'Connor Casserly' ). I have to say that I was just -{ Blown Away }- with the Depth, & the Range of his performance ; charged with a role that was ( literally ) about 25 Times more demanding in terms of its Dramatic & -{ Emotional }- 'heavy-lifting' needs ; than what we are used to seeing the average 12 year old Hollywood thespian tasked with ( in terms of their on-screen assignments ), these days. Bravo 👏❗. The Ever-stunning Angelina Jolie ( 'Hannah Faber' ) , for her part, has -{ most definitely }- " Still Got It " , ( i.e that uniquely quintessential " Supreme Cinematic Fire-power " of hers ) , make - no - mistake . And last but { by -No- means } least, let me just give a quick, yet Massive shout out to the 'second big surprise' of the night, namely ( -relative- ) newcomer Medina Senghore, who does a -{ Stupendous }- job as 'Allison Sawyer', the embattled Deputy Sheriff's very doting, and -{ Equally }- embattled 'six months pregnant' wife .

The overall cinematography , the truly -Sprawling- vistas , and the visual & special effects -{ Both }- in terms of all the thoroughly gripping action-sequences, -{ As Well }- as in terms of the "phenomenally" -real' seeming, & quite frankly, "Terrifying" looking forest-fire scenes . . . . . Were just, well . . . . . 'Hands-Down-Fantastic'. The major problem for ( -Me- ) was : " What I've now come to 'affectionately' label as " The War Of The Worlds ( Tom Cruise, 2005 ) Syndrome 🤷‍♂️ " . Or in other words, & very simply put : " When you -{ Really, Really }- start to get into the picture, and in a -Big- way, no less ; it pretty darn -Suddenly- grinds to a screeching halt, leaving you -Not Only- with the palpable sense of a sort of 'Anticlimax-malaise', but -Also- a few rather Pertinent... 'Outright' ...Unanswered-questions, relating to the film's -{ Genuinely Thrilling }- & 'Mildly-plausible', premise. And finally, & unmissably of course, there's the 'Profound' level of, er... profanity 💥💣 . Yes , I -get- that the film's rated 15 on this very homepage ; in fact that's ( just about ) the -Only- reason I'm -Not- griping about it in my review-Title. But the fact of the matter remains : The somewhat excessive seeming level of -'Hard'- swearing in the movie , coupled with the few brief but nonetheless significant instances of profane ( -Subject Matter- )... in a picture with a, let's not forget, -{ 12 year old }- as its " lead-star " ...was simply -{ Not }- indespensable to the story , -{ Period }- .

Summary : Had me on that ever proverbial 'Edge' { of-my-seat } for the -majority- of its 100 minute run-time. So this movie, with its "sensorily-Explosive" forest-fire backdrop... { No spoilers here, that's ( -very- ) much in the trailer } ...gets a -{ Fairly }- " warm 😉 " , and indeed , -Unflinching- "pandemic-considerate" 6.50 out of 10.00 from me .

What is wrong with some people?

Reviewing 101: you should review a product FOR WHAT IT IS. You can't review a Mickey Mouse cartoon like it's supposed to be Schindler's List! Just like you cant review McDonalds like it was a 5-star restaurant.

One of the complaints I read a lot in all these reviews is that you need 'suspend of disbelief'. Well duh, of course you do! This is a POPCORN ACTION FLICK. Howmany popcorn action flicks did you see in your life where you DIDN'T need a couple gallons suspend of disbelief??

I enjoyed this movie just fine, and for a standard action movie it wasn't even that many times overdone, it had some originality. Remember 6 is a pretty good score, if you are willing to acknowledge those 8 numbers BETWEEN 1 and 10, which many also seem unwilling to.

Forensic accountant Owen Casserly goes on the run with his young son Connor. His D. A. colleague has been murdered by an assassin team, Jack (Aidan Gillen) and Patrick Blackwell (Nicholas Hoult). He had uncovered high-powered political corruption. With no one to trust, he heads off to small town Montana where his brother-in-law Ethan Sawyer (Jon Bernthal) is a Deputy Sheriff. The assassin team catches up to him before that. His son Connor escapes and finds help from smokejumper Hannah Faber (Angelina Jolie).

In the old days, this would be a mid-level thriller which would come in and be forgotten in a week. Nowadays, it's a mid-level thriller on streaming that is soon forgotten after being released. It's a functional movie. It has a bit too much on Hannah's past trauma. She needs to connect with Connor a bit sooner. Pregnant Rambo is pretty dope. The good news is that most of the characters are pretty smart. There are no overtly stupid moves from these people. Even stupid moves have reasonable excuses. It's ok. Watch it and forget it.

Watch the movie and form your own opinion. It was entertaining enough, a decent "popcorn" movie. Suspend belief, enjoy the movie for the piece of escapism it is.

I cannot remember the last time I've seen a truly "good"movie put out on the big screen. They appear to be getting more and more mediocre as the years go by. Those Who Wish Me Dead was no exception. Actors I used to love, all staring in movies with weak, cliche plots. Big names like Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington hardly mean anything anymore. Nothing new or clever here. This movie is fine as background noise while you scroll through Instagram or Pinterest lazily on a late Saturday night but if you are looking for something to get into, this is not it.