Download Those Who Wish Me Dead; movie review

Written By Kang Cepi Friday, October 8, 2021 Add Comment

THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD

Cert 15

100 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong violence, threat, language, injury detail

Ruddy hell, is that Angelina Jolie?

She was always beautiful but now the clock seems to have been reversed and she looks 25 instead of 46!

I have discovered since watching Those Who Wish Me Dead that Angelina has been under the plastic surgeon's knife.

I am sure she is delighted with the result which I found particularly distracting as I took in her latest movie.

Here, Jolie is meant to be a wizened firefighter and yet looks anything but.

Nevertheless, she has a deep and painful history of battling wildfires and the season is about to begin again.

The added complication is that a paid hit has happened on her patch and a young boy (Finn Little) is trying to escape his dad's assassins (Nicholas Hoult and Aidan Gillen).

Taylor Sheridan's movie is a curiosity in that it has all the ingredients to be a gripping action thriller and yet doesn't quite manage to convert.

One of the reasons was that the assassins occasionally resemble the housebreakers in Home Alone because of cock-ups and hideous injuries which they largely ignore.

Indeed, it left me wondering if I had missed a key element.

Anyway, suffice to say, Angelina doesn't need to be Lara Croft to sort out lethal fires and these deadly gunmen.

The scenarios of Those Who Wish Me Dead are dramatic - there are explosions, crashes and mighty fires but it doesn't grab as much as it should.

This is down to the drawing of dull stereotypical characters.

The firefighters are hard-drinkers who are afraid of nothing, the assassins have no conscience and pursue their prey without a plan and even the young boy is brave beyond his years.

Consequently, the audience cannot buy into them as heartily as they should.

Reasons to watch: Passable thriller

Reasons to avoid: Stereotypical characters

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: Yes

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 6/10

Did you know? Since 1983, the National Interagency Fire Center has documented an average of approximately 70,000 wildfires per year in the United States.

The final word. Angelina Jolie: "I love directing, but I had a change in my family situation that's not made it possible for me to direct for a few years. I needed to just do shorter jobs and be home more, so I kind of went back to doing a few acting jobs. That's really the truth of it." EW.com