Those Who Wish Me Dead – Movie Review
hello and welcome to a brand new episode of coming
distractions brought to you by the nerd apocalypse
podcast i’m your host jay i’m here with my co-host
micah hey all right guys we’re back uh this time
we’re going to review those who wish me dead uh
this is newly on hbo max and in theaters i believe
uh this is the new angelina jolie film uh with
her co-starring with finn little nicholas holt
aidan gillen jake weber medina singhor and john
bernthal so this film i’ll give the log line um uh
basically it’s a um uh it follows a little boy
named uh who’s played by finn little who witnesses
the murder of his father and goes on the run
with a smoke jumper uh played by angelina jolie
in the montana wilderness to escape a pair of
assassins played by nicholas holt and aidan gillen
uh hired to silence him uh john berenthal
and medina sikor and jake weber also star
so um a smoke jumper if you don’t know are the
people who like parachute into like where their
forest fires which is like the craziest [
__ ] ever um so i i feel like this movie
had a potential to have some pretty
awesome like smoke jumping scenes um no
think of this movie you know i i’m pretty
easy on movies and um uh i’ll i’ll be easy
on this one when i say that this is like
something that i would think would be on
like tnt like i could see this being on tnt
and and people liking it right like
it doesn’t feel like i’m all for um
grown-up action movies right you know
everything doesn’t have to be superheroes but um
this i i this is less than the sum of its
parts i like individual pieces of this
movie but as a whole it it felt pretty
it felt pretty standard and coming from
uh the person that wrote uh sicario and uh
hell or high water i was expecting something
a little more than what i got yeah this
feels like a movie that should have played
uh this feels like a movie that would come
directly to streaming yeah it does um it’s bland
yeah it’s bland it’s very blessed it’s just
kind of uh all right you know it’s a it’s a
folding laundry movie if i’ve ever seen one this
is the definition of it this is the definition of
it because there’s nothing there’s nothing
here that’s like the performances are good
all around but there’s nothing that’s like keeping
me hooked in right now nothing offensive nothing
offensive either right like it’s you know
i i see aidan gillen and i’m like villain
right and i like the idea of the pair of assassins
yeah um this has some like interesting concepts
but like it’s a simple story like
super simple yes very simple um which
okay um but i i like the performances from
aidan gillen nicholas hold a little less but
he you know he doesn’t offend me um angelina
jolie she always is a she’s a she’s a good to
great actress she did a good job in this movie
like yeah but but i don’t but the the stakes
don’t feel high for me they don’t and i
feel like they should they should be much
they should feel much higher considering
these guys are trying to kill a little kid
like you know like trying to try to murder a child
right like it should it should feel higher um
but like as i’m watching the movie what i realize
is it’s it’s basically two different movies um
and i don’t mean like narratively it’s all over
the place it like it’s pretty narrow narratively
straightforward but like it is two movies that
you’ve seen before it is somewhere between twister
and cliffhanger like it’s those same movies right
she’s you know she’s suffering from the loss like
you know angelina lee’s character is sort of has
like ptsd because you know she was in the middle
of this you know in this because of an accident
right right like in the middle of a rescue
and she read the winds wrong and these three
kids ended up dying right so she’s kind of
[ __ ] up about it um understandably and that
feels like the helen hunt character in twister
right like watching her parents die by the hands
of a tornado watching these kids die but at the
hands of this fire um and it was nothing she
could do to save them that sort of thing and it
traumatized her forever right and so she has this
like reckless behavior because of it right and
you know like there’s literally that scene
where she like does a crazy parachute jump off
a back of a moving pickup truck which is just just
because she’s drunk and she’s just being reckless
because she doesn’t really care about her life
right like that’s the whole point um so there’s
the there’s a twister element to it um and then
there’s a cliffhanger element which is people of
the wilderness you know in this case instead of
rock climbing they’re like you know these smoke
jumpers and stuff and you know and survivalists um
these people of the wilderness these good-natured
people but they’re risk-takers and and that sort
of thing their world is invaded by these outside
bad guys who are like out to get money or kill
a kid in this case and stuff like that right
so it has that in there like these regular people
trying to fight back against these assassins right
it’s the same as basically the same type of movie
um obviously not as ridiculously action-packed as
cliffhanger because that is a great movie great
bad movie but but i love that movie um so it has
like those kind of weird elements um i will say
this without spoiling it it’s got a very unlikely
action hero in it one that you do not see in
movies almost ever yeah yeah like yeah yeah like
part of it felt like uh box ticking but um but i
wasn’t mad at it no i thought it was kind of dope
i thought it was kind of dope like i won’t i
won’t give away like what that looks like but
yeah it is not a likely action hero that you
you see in movies like i can’t think of a time
i’ve ever seen that to be honest um but yeah like
all performances all the way around are fine um
the story is just bland like it’s you know they
she befriends this little boy as he’s you know
running from these assassins and she protects him
um there’s some like cooler fire moments like they
start a forest fire purposely to try to cover
their tracks to go after this kid and so like
the fire is always looming over them is like it’s
getting closer and closer to them um while this is
all going on but all in all like you’re right the
stakes are just not they don’t feel high enough
which is it’s weird and and i don’t know
if it’s just because this is a this is
just a a regular old you know mcguffin chase
right or or what but um you would think that
there’s no like personal element to it right
those who wish me dead like well it turns out
that those who wish me dead are just like two
random assassins hired by another random person
who has three minutes in the movie and it was a
tyler perry who plays a mob boss who has three
minutes in the movie and like there’s no there’s
no relationship to these two to to to the good
guys and the bad guys right like and there’s
barely a there’s barely a relationship between
angelina jolie and finn little like it’s not it’s
not a deep in relationship which i would have
thought they would have really dug into yeah i you
know like let the let the motherly instinct you
know i guess because of the tragedy that happened
she’s kind of trying to open up more but that’s
me inferring a lot right like right i you don’t
see that you don’t see them make that connection
because the movie doesn’t spend a lot of time with
those characters we spend it feels like we spend
an equal amount of time between the the the people
being chased and the chasers but like i don’t know
the the chasers seem to have more dialogue they
seem to interact a little better i don’t know
if they’re supposed to be like siblings or or
whatever um but i feel like you i feel like you
might even get a little more screen time with the
two assassins yeah but it’s a it’s a little weird
it’s a little weird yeah yeah but if if there were
some sort of um if there were like if if the boy
like knew who these people were and like they
were they were you know betrayed or they betrayed
the boy and his family that would have made more
of an impact yeah but as it is right now like
i i don’t know it just doesn’t it it’s it’s not
hidden that the title makes no sense for the story
yeah those who wish me dead uh you know
a couple of couple of killers like okay
yeah like wish me dead feels like it’s much more
personal yeah like like like there’s some real
adversarial like there’s some enmity
in in there man and and it’s just not
it just doesn’t it just doesn’t it just doesn’t
work yeah so yeah i mean that’s too bad i look
uh the guy who wrote this uh tyler sheridan who’s
also the director look you’re not slick you’re not
like i see you i see you giving angelina jolie
the weapon from tomb raider in the end i see you
i see it like we all see it i like this
movie all this movie felt like to me
was oh angelina jolie can still do some action
that’s cool i can’t wait to see her in eternals
like that’s all it did for me i was like
cool i can’t wait to see her in a good movie
that’s all i did this movie’s not like bad but
it’s you can skip it uh yeah it’s nothing that i
would run out to see um there were three writers
on this thing and uh and it’s based on a book
like it’s it’s based on a on an on a book and
he’s one of the people that did the screenplay
wow and um i don’t i don’t know it just uh yeah uh
yeah michael uh corda um no no and again it’s not
bad uh if i have to give it a score it’s a two and
a half out of five it’s right down yeah it’s right
down the middle it’s not offensive but it’s not
like it’s not like something that i would i would
rush out to see uh i feel like the book might be
a little better just because you can flesh out
relationships this is also like a like uh this
movie is like an hour and 40 minutes oh it’s
a tight of ways to speak and you know
me i’m i’m the type of person that um
i i i don’t like long you know super long movies
but if it’s needed for the story like do it and
i feel like this movie could have added maybe
10 more minutes uh maybe 20. just to just to
cultivate some more of the relationship right
um especially between angelina jolie’s character
and uh and finn little’s character right um yeah
there’s just a lot of elements it’s it’s so it’s
fine it’s fine that’s fine just check it out on
hbo max if you if you if you don’t have anything
else going on right like it’s perfect that it’s
on streaming honestly yep because that’s exactly
where it should be um all right that’s it for
us and we will see you guys next time see ya
bye
you
