Friday, May 21, 2021

Movie Review: Those Who Wish Me Dead

 



Michael's Movie Grade: B

A highly enjoyable action thriller.


One thing that makes this movie work so well is that despite the big action and suspense scene this movie has its heart in the right place. The relationship between our two main characters is surprisingly well done. Much of this is due to the excellent chemistry between Angelina Jolie and Finn Little. They develop a mother and son like bond that is completely believable. The relationship between the deputy sheriff and his wife was also quite good. These relationships keep the movie grounded and more effective even when the action scenes go completely over the top. The action scenes themselves are a heck of a lot of fun. If you are someone who complains about action scenes not making much sense than this movie is not for you, but if you are like me and want to see a fun popcorn movie and doesn't care about realism in a movie like this, then you will have a lot of fun. The villains are excellent. They are quite over the top as well and much of what they do doesn't make a lick of sense, but I can't help but enjoy myself every time they are on screen. They give off a legitimately creepy vibe, while still being a lot of fun to watch. Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult's performances only enhance how much I enjoyed these villains. 

The biggest problem with this film is the whole storyline of why these villains are after the kid to begin with. This is something that so obviously only exists to move the storyline forward. As soon as this part of the plot is appears, it is pushed to the side. It would be incredibly easy to watch this movie having no idea just why these villains committed this murder in the first place. This part of the story simply should have gotten more time. The story is also very predictable and anyone who has seen action movies before knows where the film is going. 

Writer/director Taylor Sheridan has previously brought us Hell or High Water (2016) and Wind River (2017) and I am sure many of his fans excepting what they got before from him will be largely disappointed. However this is not fair, because this movie is a lot of fun in its own right. 

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