Those Who Wish Me Dead

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.

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 .

Too many unnecessary scenes and infantile dialogue riddled with foul language you'd never expect to hear from those spewing it. There was way to much time spent on filler and not enough on substance. What was the point of that entire outdoor drinking on picnic tables act? The pick-up truck parachute and arrest scenes? The constant repetitive flashbacks only inching each time just a little more facts on her past incident also became annoying. Just spit it out, and move on with the current drama and all too little excitement. Never mind it was totally boring and pointless for the movies plot-line. Even the idea of the cat and mouse wasn't concluded, nor why it even started or who ordered it. The screenplay felt like it had random scenes cut out and/or was poorly edited. The 100 min runtime felt much longer with all the boring filler. I'm not sure if the book is as bad at the screenplay and direction, but this one had a great conceptual idea that ultimately burns out quickly. Jolie was the worst casting choice, and for the most part was unconvincing in her role and her acting abilities. Her swearing trying to act all tough with her long stringy hair was just getting annoying and unbearable. The little boy was more believable than her. Too bad, the premise was great, was it was poorly executed.

The best part about this movie is the story and scenes are all believable. Finn Little (Connor) plays his role to the highest level. Throughout the movie he was a typical boy who had to navigate challenges, trust strangers and deal with the flurry of emotions about the terrifying events that were occurring. Not once did he seem out of character of a boy that age.

Angelina Jolie (Hannah) and Jon Bernthal (Ethan) who are both fantastic action movie actors with a ton of experience don't disappoint in their respective roles in the movie. It is a movie that gives you a few jolt, but really gets you pulling for the good guys. Loved it!

Its not the best movie ever but not the worst good action, you hate the bad guy they do a great job at it, the fire takes a back burner.

All in all a good way to spend 2 hours but you probably won't watch again.