Reviews of Demonic and Those Who Wish Me Dead
Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021) Dir. Taylor Sheridan
Angelina Jolie plays Hannah Farber - a smokejumper (wildland firefighter) posted in a lookout tower in Montana who stumbles across a young boy (Finn Little as Connor) who has found himself on the run in the woods from two hitmen.
They are hunting Connor as he holds sensitive evidence against a mob boss but to slow down the authorities hunting them, the two assassins start a forest fire. Whilst searching in the dense wooded areas, Connor does his best to hide and survive as the assassins track clues before finding themselves at the Deputy Sheriff’s home threatening his loved ones as flames encompass their surroundings.
Aidan Gillen as Jack and an against-type Nicholas Hoult as Patrick are suitably immoral dispatchers and the whole film has a certain 90s/00s vibe with its broad characters, flimsy plot and thin narrative. BUT I can’t say I didn’t enjoy some of its simple pleasures. The encroaching fire keeps the tension high, and there’s a surprising amount of violence, gunplay and taut chase sequences.
Probably helped by the director’s work on his scripts for Sicario and Hell or High Water (two fantastic films if you haven’t seen them), this movie is not to the level of those, but there is a fair amount of entertainment for what sounds on paper to be pure b-movie fare.
With enough thrills throughout, Those Who Wish Me Dead never surprises or strays from the standard genre thriller beats, but it does have enough enthusiasm and action pleasures to make it a more than entertaining distraction on a Friday night.
★★★½
Michael Sales
