It was a double bill of movies over at Cineworld the other day first up was Mortal Kombat and shortly followed by the new film Those Who Wish Me Dead featuring Angelina Jolie and Jon Bernthal.
Oscar-winner Jolie (“Girl, Interrupted,” the “Maleficent” films) stars as Hannah, a smoke jumper still reeling from the loss of three lives she failed to save from a fire when she comes across a traumatized 12-year-old boy with nowhere else to turn. The film also stars Nicholas Hoult (the “X-Men” films), Finn Little (“Reckoning”), Aiden Gillen (“Game of Thrones,” “Peaky Blinders”), Medina Senghore (“Happy!”), Tyler Perry (“Vice,” “Gone Girl”), Jake Weber (“Midway,” “Homeland”), and Jon Bernthal (“Ford v Ferrari,” “Wind River”).
After seeing the trailer for Those That Wish Me Dead I was expecting the film to be more action packed than it was, but the set pieces that run through the film do really work when they are needed in this cat and mouse thriller, as Jolie tries to keep Connor (Finn Little) alive from the Patrick (Nicholas Hoult) and Jack (Aidan Gillen) as they hunt the the boy down to try and kill him to secure the secrets he knows. While all this is going on there is the raging forest fire that is raging across the land that is threatening to destroy everything in its path.
I found myself being pulled into the film as it moved along and although there isn’t really much to the film than someone being chased in the woods, the forest fire does add to the thriller element of the film as a time catalyst that is counting down like a bomb ready to go off.
The effects in the film are nicely done and the use of sound certainly puts you in the middle of the fire as the trees burn you get the sound of the fire crackling and popping all around you which is a great way to bring the audience into the world that they are watching.
Those The Wish Me Dead is certainly one of those films that when I started watching it I wasn’t too sure about it, but with the slight character building of Jolie’s character with the flashbacks to the incident in the last fire that she was fighting and the effects on her were interesting and informative enough to give us the incite we needed to know why her character reacts to things the way she does.
This is one of those films that is worth checking out for something a little different from many of the films that are out at the moment, it’s great to see Angelina Jolie back on the big screen and a Jon Bernthal who many will recognise from The Walking Dead.
Although the film is one with a simple idea it is one that is watchable and will no doubt appeal to Jolie fans, but for me I have to say that the stand out performance doesn’t come from Jolie or Hoult and Gillen, although their two characters certainly brought the crazy into the production, no the star of the film has to be the effects of the fire with the visuals and sound.
FIRE!!!!
Movie title: Those That Wish Me Dead
Movie description: A teenage murder witness finds himself pursued by twin assassins in the Montana wilderness with a survival expert tasked with protecting him -- and a forest fire threatening to consume them all.
Date published: May 17, 2021
Country: UK
Duration: 1h 40min
Director(s): Taylor Sheridan
Actor(s): Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Finn Little
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
