Those Who Wish Me Dead [2021]

Those Who Wish Me Dead is held together by a decent performance from Angelina Jolie.

To start, we have to say that this is not a bad or good movie perse, it just feels out of place for 2021. Those Who Wish Me Dead is a squarely traditional ’90s-style action thriller that is elevated by Taylor Sheridan‘s propulsive direction.

Plus, it also helps when you have a movie starring Angelina Jolie with the amazing Jon Bernthal. Jolie nailed the haunted firefighter, and Bernthal is as amazing as usual.

Yes, the first 10 minutes of the movie make absolutely no sense, especially in the bigger scheme. Why would you take almost fifteen minutes to setup murder? And suddenly, without any real excuse, the teenage witness finds himself pursued by twin assassins in the Montana wilderness.

Hat’s off to Finn Little for trying his best to sell us the disturbed teenager who just witnessed his dad’s murder, but I couldn’t connect with that part of the movie mainly because we never know the reason behind it. The movie could have benefitted from a little more tension and plausibility.

On the other hand, Nicholas Hoult sold the shit out of his assassin-for-hire role. I would watch him being bad at anything.

Should you watch it?

The edge-of-your-seat action helps Those Who Wish Me Dead cover for the rough patches in its plot. In addition, the onscreen bond between Angelina Jolie and Finn Little takes care of the rest with some help from Nicholas Hoult and Jon Bernthal.

Where can I watch it?

You can stream Those Who Wish Me Dead on HBO MAX in USA and Crave in Canada.