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 brand new movie just added to HBO Max. A traumatized and retired firefighter who had to protect a boy from those who wish him dead.

When I saw the trailer, I expected a pretty simple thriller. And I was right. The trailer showed most of the story. The plot was seen a bunch of times before, so there wasn't any surprises here.

The acting was pretty decent across the board. There wasn't much complex emotion or scenes that required these actors to show their best.

Even though the plot was simple, I still wanted a decent thriller, and the movie gave me that. There were some pretty okay and intense action scenes, and they were handled well.

My biggest problem was the characters. At the beginning, the movie showed the event that traumatized the main character, played by Jolie. However, I did not see the significance of this event to the story at all. It didn't impact her character when she was in the action scenes.

Besides the main character, there were minimal development to the other characters. Jon Bernthal was badass as usual, but I didn't care for his character much, or any other characters.

Overall, a decent thriller, but everything else was average and not memorable. There's no need to watch this movie. 6/10.

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.

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.

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.