Those Who Wish Me Dead

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.

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 .

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!

I basically enjoyed this movie. I don't require a movie to have a multi-level plot and deep character flaws to be entertained. Most everything was fine here. The actors did well with the script they were given. I didn't see anything wrong with the CGI as others have commented. The action was fine, and pretty much everything made sense.

There were only two things I would change. One character's story was not entirely completed at the end. A 10 second scene would have fixed that part of the ending.

The other item was the language. I get tired of the constant use of the f word. It's meaningless verbal garbage and adds nothing to the movie.

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.