Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021) User Reviews (1,104)

Not that bad at all

[vuileharry · 6/10 · 18 August 2021]

What is wrong with some people?

Reviewing 101: you should review a product FOR WHAT IT IS. You can't review a Mickey Mouse cartoon like it's supposed to be Schindler's List! Just like you cant review McDonalds like it was a 5-star restaurant.

One of the complaints I read a lot in all these reviews is that you need 'suspend of disbelief'. Well duh, of course you do! This is a POPCORN ACTION FLICK. Howmany popcorn action flicks did you see in your life where you DIDN'T need a couple gallons suspend of disbelief??

I enjoyed this movie just fine, and for a standard action movie it wasn't even that many times overdone, it had some originality. Remember 6 is a pretty good score, if you are willing to acknowledge those 8 numbers BETWEEN 1 and 10, which many also seem unwilling to.

You're killing Me, Hollywood

[arod_85 · 6/10 · 15 May 2021]

I cannot remember the last time I've seen a truly "good"movie put out on the big screen. They appear to be getting more and more mediocre as the years go by. Those Who Wish Me Dead was no exception. Actors I used to love, all staring in movies with weak, cliche plots. Big names like Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington hardly mean anything anymore. Nothing new or clever here. This movie is fine as background noise while you scroll through Instagram or Pinterest lazily on a late Saturday night but if you are looking for something to get into, this is not it.

Yes, but what was the point?

[neil-476 · 6/10 · 3 June 2021]

When his father is killed while fleeing from hitmen, young Connor flees into the forest where he falls in with Hannah, a firefighter whose mojo was injured during a forest fire tragedy. Together they must escape not only the hitmen but also the firest fire they started.

Welcome to another curate's egg. Angelina Jolie's Hannah is a tolerable second banana supporting Finn Little as the newly orphaned evidence-bearing Connor. This kid is seriously good, by far the best thing in the film. The plot idea is fine, the danger is plausible, the actions of the improbably Amazonian deupty's wife are nlikely but satisfying, and most of what happens is unoriginal but tolerable.

But the film is built on the threat of the hitmen and Connor and his Dad fleeing them - some effort and time is devoted to setting this up. And then two things happen. One, the hitmen go from being murderously efficient to bumblingly inept. And, two, there is never any real oayoff as regards the maguffin which thrus Connor inharm's way in the first place - without even knowing why and who, you are left to assume that Connor's crumpled and soaked bits of paper will remove him from jeopardy. This is careless screenwriting and devalues the fil significantly, adding a note of dissatisfaction to an otherwise adequate action thriller.

I hate the internet, everyone's a hater that has to show how clever they are.

[dfredkin · 7/10 · 16 May 2021]

Watch the movie and form your own opinion. It was entertaining enough, a decent "popcorn" movie. Suspend belief, enjoy the movie for the piece of escapism it is.

unremarkable thriller

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 20 May 2021]

Forensic accountant Owen Casserly goes on the run with his young son Connor. His D. A. colleague has been murdered by an assassin team, Jack (Aidan Gillen) and Patrick Blackwell (Nicholas Hoult). He had uncovered high-powered political corruption. With no one to trust, he heads off to small town Montana where his brother-in-law Ethan Sawyer (Jon Bernthal) is a Deputy Sheriff. The assassin team catches up to him before that. His son Connor escapes and finds help from smokejumper Hannah Faber (Angelina Jolie).

In the old days, this would be a mid-level thriller which would come in and be forgotten in a week. Nowadays, it's a mid-level thriller on streaming that is soon forgotten after being released. It's a functional movie. It has a bit too much on Hannah's past trauma. She needs to connect with Connor a bit sooner. Pregnant Rambo is pretty dope. The good news is that most of the characters are pretty smart. There are no overtly stupid moves from these people. Even stupid moves have reasonable excuses. It's ok. Watch it and forget it.

Lose ends

[christopherluke-18264 · 6/10 · 14 June 2021]

Decent movie. The loose ends were the most annoying to me. What was the info his father had? Other than Tyler Perry's brief cameo, who were the "big bad" who sent the hit men? What happened to them? Did the baby survive? I even sat through the credits hoping for a hidden scene... nope.

A bit of refreshment, a bit of disappointment

[educatexan · 7/10 · 16 May 2021]

I basically enjoyed this movie. I don't require a movie to have a multi-level plot and deep character flaws to be entertained. Most everything was fine here. The actors did well with the script they were given. I didn't see anything wrong with the CGI as others have commented. The action was fine, and pretty much everything made sense.

There were only two things I would change. One character's story was not entirely completed at the end. A 10 second scene would have fixed that part of the ending.

The other item was the language. I get tired of the constant use of the f word. It's meaningless verbal garbage and adds nothing to the movie.

Wut¿

[christalkatie · 3/10 · 15 May 2021]

First of all, I'm a huge Angelina Jolie fan ...and yeah, she was Angie..she never disappoints. The little boy is a great actor; so I hope he has a brilliant future ahead of him

Here's the thing- what even happened? Why did they blow up the house? ..what was the big coverup? We felt something was missing or unnecessary at every turn throughout the film. Tyler Perry showing up was silly, as were the villian's fake law enforcement badges. Almost all of the script was odd & random, with the exception of Angelina & the boy's interaction. Every inference we made still seems fragmented..nothing was answered, there was no resolve, and we're still wondering..what happened to the horse?

okey way to pass the time

[kaefab · 6/10 · 9 May 2021]

Its not the best movie ever but not the worst good action, you hate the bad guy they do a great job at it, the fire takes a back burner.

All in all a good way to spend 2 hours but you probably won't watch again.

Wtb did u just watch

[guzjulie · 1/10 · 15 May 2021]

Why was the guy killed, what was on the letter, why couldn't they even show the news interview to see what the heck was going on. I don't care how good or bad it was but not knowing sucks. One star for wasting my time.

A fun classic action movie

[joshbertrammartin · 8/10 · 25 October 2023]

Don't come to this movie for deep, twisting plot lines or complex character arcs. Sure, it has some loose ends and potential plot holes in places. It also has Aidan Gillen of Game of Thrones fame who, like in that series, has an interestingly variable accent that moves between Irish and American. It also has cliches a plenty.

All of that negative aside, it's actually a good, solid action movie. The kind of Cliffhanger / Die Hard style of goodies against baddies, keeping you on edge, kind of movie. Trust me, I don't sit through movies unless they're sufficiently intense or fast paced enough, and this movie definitely has it. There are many scenes and situations that kept me intently focused, praying for the goodies to win. And, who knows who will survive. It's that kind of movie which, while it has some clichés, still has enough depth and good plot development to keep you guessing. Who will survive? What will kill her/him? What would I do in that situation?

Definitely worth getting stuck into!

{ AMAZING } Performances & Visuals , But An Anticlimactic , Even -{ ABRUPT }- Finalé ; I'm Afraid This Was Just { ANOTHER } Tragic Victim Of The PANDEMIC 😔 .

[Radio-1s_Mr-MovieMad-Ami_104-1FM · 6/10 · 17 May 2021]

A "Good, Old Fashioned" -{ B i g }- Screen Review .

______________________________________________________

Hannah : " I should have gone to them, and instead I was a ( expletive ) Coward " .

Ryan : " Then you'd be dead too " .

Hannah : " ..... That's Our -{ JOB }- " .

______________________________________________________

Let me start with the -{ Unbelievably }- natural 12 year old ( when the movie was filmed ) child-actor, native Australian Finn Little ( 'Connor Casserly' ). I have to say that I was just -{ Blown Away }- with the Depth, & the Range of his performance ; charged with a role that was ( literally ) about 25 Times more demanding in terms of its Dramatic & -{ Emotional }- 'heavy-lifting' needs ; than what we are used to seeing the average 12 year old Hollywood thespian tasked with ( in terms of their on-screen assignments ), these days. Bravo 👏❗. The Ever-stunning Angelina Jolie ( 'Hannah Faber' ) , for her part, has -{ most definitely }- " Still Got It " , ( i.e that uniquely quintessential " Supreme Cinematic Fire-power " of hers ) , make - no - mistake . And last but { by -No- means } least, let me just give a quick, yet Massive shout out to the 'second big surprise' of the night, namely ( -relative- ) newcomer Medina Senghore, who does a -{ Stupendous }- job as 'Allison Sawyer', the embattled Deputy Sheriff's very doting, and -{ Equally }- embattled 'six months pregnant' wife .

The overall cinematography , the truly -Sprawling- vistas , and the visual & special effects -{ Both }- in terms of all the thoroughly gripping action-sequences, -{ As Well }- as in terms of the "phenomenally" -real' seeming, & quite frankly, "Terrifying" looking forest-fire scenes . . . . . Were just, well . . . . . 'Hands-Down-Fantastic'. The major problem for ( -Me- ) was : " What I've now come to 'affectionately' label as " The War Of The Worlds ( Tom Cruise, 2005 ) Syndrome 🤷‍♂️ " . Or in other words, & very simply put : " When you -{ Really, Really }- start to get into the picture, and in a -Big- way, no less ; it pretty darn -Suddenly- grinds to a screeching halt, leaving you -Not Only- with the palpable sense of a sort of 'Anticlimax-malaise', but -Also- a few rather Pertinent... 'Outright' ...Unanswered-questions, relating to the film's -{ Genuinely Thrilling }- & 'Mildly-plausible', premise. And finally, & unmissably of course, there's the 'Profound' level of, er... profanity 💥💣 . Yes , I -get- that the film's rated 15 on this very homepage ; in fact that's ( just about ) the -Only- reason I'm -Not- griping about it in my review-Title. But the fact of the matter remains : The somewhat excessive seeming level of -'Hard'- swearing in the movie , coupled with the few brief but nonetheless significant instances of profane ( -Subject Matter- )... in a picture with a, let's not forget, -{ 12 year old }- as its " lead-star " ...was simply -{ Not }- indespensable to the story , -{ Period }- .

Summary : Had me on that ever proverbial 'Edge' { of-my-seat } for the -majority- of its 100 minute run-time. So this movie, with its "sensorily-Explosive" forest-fire backdrop... { No spoilers here, that's ( -very- ) much in the trailer } ...gets a -{ Fairly }- " warm 😉 " , and indeed , -Unflinching- "pandemic-considerate" 6.50 out of 10.00 from me .

Felt like a late night TV movie.

[paulclaassen · 4/10 · 6 July 2021]

If it wasn't for Angelina Jolie being cast in the lead, I might have mistaken 'Those who wish me dead' for a TV movie.

The best part about the movie was the beautiful cinematography. Apart from that, there really was nothing here to make this a memorable viewing experience. We have a Dad on the run from assassins because he stumbled upon information he's not suppose to have and now they want him dead, but not enough information is given on what information exactly he possesses. I thought it might be revealed later, but alas, they never did. On the run with him, is his son Connor.

None of the characters are fleshed out. The only one with a bit of a back story, is Hannah (Jolie) - the film's heroin - but even her back story feels forced, and her memories become pretty much deja vu. The best character by far, was Allison (played by Medina Senghore). She made the best decisions and came across as the strongest character. All the other characters made strange and unrealistic decisions throughout the movie.

This movie could have gone in so many directions, but instead it was just plodding along, with the fire making it more interesting. The visual effects were fine. The climax felt a bit rushed and nothing spectacular. I doubt I'm going to remember this movie after a while - and honestly, I won't even miss it. It felt like something I've seen before, just in a different set-up.

Would I watch it again? No.

Really entertaining

[mphocastry · 7/10 · 22 May 2021]

This movie was really entertaining, I was not bored for one second. The movie gave me 'Wrong Turn 1' vibes, being hunted in the woods and ending up at a watch tower. The actors were fantastic, and the writing was also good. The ending was not 100% satisfying, but I cared enough about the characters not to mind that. All the characters including the bad guys were likeable. It's a worthwhile watch.

Sloppy, unbelievable, far-fetched and lazy writing with lots of plot and technical issues.

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 6/10 · 15 May 2021]

Too many unnecessary scenes and infantile dialogue riddled with foul language you'd never expect to hear from those spewing it. There was way to much time spent on filler and not enough on substance. What was the point of that entire outdoor drinking on picnic tables act? The pick-up truck parachute and arrest scenes? The constant repetitive flashbacks only inching each time just a little more facts on her past incident also became annoying. Just spit it out, and move on with the current drama and all too little excitement. Never mind it was totally boring and pointless for the movies plot-line. Even the idea of the cat and mouse wasn't concluded, nor why it even started or who ordered it. The screenplay felt like it had random scenes cut out and/or was poorly edited. The 100 min runtime felt much longer with all the boring filler. I'm not sure if the book is as bad at the screenplay and direction, but this one had a great conceptual idea that ultimately burns out quickly. Jolie was the worst casting choice, and for the most part was unconvincing in her role and her acting abilities. Her swearing trying to act all tough with her long stringy hair was just getting annoying and unbearable. The little boy was more believable than her. Too bad, the premise was great, was it was poorly executed.

Intense and engaging

[Gordon-11 · 7 May 2021]

I didn't expect this film to be so good. The fire and assassins provide plenty of adrenaline. There is a lot of emotional subplots the touches hearts too. I really enjoyed it.

Average although decent thrill

[Movi3DO · 6/10 · 14 May 2021]

A brand new movie just added to HBO Max. A traumatized and retired firefighter who had to protect a boy from those who wish him dead.

When I saw the trailer, I expected a pretty simple thriller. And I was right. The trailer showed most of the story. The plot was seen a bunch of times before, so there wasn't any surprises here.

The acting was pretty decent across the board. There wasn't much complex emotion or scenes that required these actors to show their best.

Even though the plot was simple, I still wanted a decent thriller, and the movie gave me that. There were some pretty okay and intense action scenes, and they were handled well.

My biggest problem was the characters. At the beginning, the movie showed the event that traumatized the main character, played by Jolie. However, I did not see the significance of this event to the story at all. It didn't impact her character when she was in the action scenes.

Besides the main character, there were minimal development to the other characters. Jon Bernthal was badass as usual, but I didn't care for his character much, or any other characters.

Overall, a decent thriller, but everything else was average and not memorable. There's no need to watch this movie. 6/10.

A fair enough thriller...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 11 July 2021]

I sat down to watch the 2021 movie "Those Who Wish Me Dead" here in 2021 as I was sort of made to do so, given the fact that my wife wanted to watch it. So I buckled in and went to watch it with her.

Granted, I wasn't really expecting much of anything grand here from writers Michael Koryta, Charles Leavitt and Taylor Sheridan. So I would say that director Taylor Sheridan definitely had all the chances to impress me with "Those Who Wish Me Dead".

And let me just say that "Those Who Wish Me Dead" was actually an adequately entertaining and enjoyable movie. It had that particular classic thriller sense to it that made movies had back in the 1980s. So that definitely worked out for me.

The storyline in the movie was good. Sure, this wasn't exactly rocket science, but the script provided me with adequate entertainment and enough suspense to keep it interesting.

"Those Who Wish Me Dead" had a good ensemble of actors and actresses to help bring the movie to life on the screen, with the likes of Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal, Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult.

Visually then "Those Who Wish Me Dead" was fairly good. However, the scene with the rapidly spreading fire in the forest was just a bit over the top. Now, I am by no means traversed in the science of forest fires, but the speed that the fire spread with just seemed way too impossible. Sure, it made for intense entertainment, but...

While "Those Who Wish Me Dead" definitely was watchable, the movie just doesn't really have the contents to support more than just a single viewing, as the storyline just doesn't carry the leverage for such. And this movie is hardly one that left me impressed, and I believe that it is one that will slowly fade into oblivion among a sea of other similar movies.

Ultimately, then I am rating "Those Who Wish Me Dead" a six out of ten stars.

Painfully mediocre

[yehboi · 4/10 · 13 May 2021]

Unoriginal story. Some bad dialogue. Characters you don't care about. Annoying kid. Lame villains. Anticlimactic ending.

Was expecting much more from Taylor Sheridan. This is by far his worst film.

Nothing spectacular, but still a decent thriller, with good acting and impressive photography.

[imseeg · 7/10 · 20 May 2021]

The bad: Seen these kind of action thrillers before. They are pretty much all the same. There is nothing new to this story either and there are a few pretty implausible plot turns, that prevent it from becoming a spectacular thriller. BUT it is still a rather enjoyable action thriller, for those whose demands are not too high...

The good: The acting is pretty good. Angelina Jolie is still beautiful at her older age and she still mesmirizes me with her acting skills. The other actors aint bad either. Despite some predictable and implausible plot turns and despite a predictable happy end, there is still enough action and suspense to keep me entertained. Rather impressive firestorm photography tops it of...

The story: Angelina Jolie protects a kid who witnessed a murder, during a firestorm. Will they survive both the fire and the killers who are chasing them? Duh...

Waste of time

[cdc123 · 1/10 · 15 May 2021]

Completely predictable. Poorly written. Two dimensional characters. What were they possibly thinking? This is a "paint by numbers" film with two colors. And the title is awful. I'm just amazed at the mediocrity. Good grief what a total waste of time, money and talent.

Top Notch Action

[mmcfadden-557-159110 · 8/10 · 1 January 2024]

The best part about this movie is the story and scenes are all believable. Finn Little (Connor) plays his role to the highest level. Throughout the movie he was a typical boy who had to navigate challenges, trust strangers and deal with the flurry of emotions about the terrifying events that were occurring. Not once did he seem out of character of a boy that age.

Angelina Jolie (Hannah) and Jon Bernthal (Ethan) who are both fantastic action movie actors with a ton of experience don't disappoint in their respective roles in the movie. It is a movie that gives you a few jolt, but really gets you pulling for the good guys. Loved it!

"You got to win one, I see."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 18 May 2021]

Against a backdrop of a huge forest fire, Forest Ranger Hannah (Angelina Jolie) attempts to lead a young boy (Finn Little) to safety after his father was murdered by a pair of brother hitmen. The premise for that murder was never made clear, only that the target was a forensic accountant who turned up something incriminating enough to warrant a hit on him and his employer as well. At the same time, Jolie's character suffers a guilt riddled angst over the deaths of three teenagers who perished in a separate fire when she miscalculated on the direction of the conflagration. Tied into the story is a small town sheriff (Jon Bernthal) and his pregnant wife, a survivalist who knows how to handle herself when the assassins come calling. The unseen stars of this vehicle were the special effects team who made the forest fire behave like a killer in and of itself, leaping across expanses of forest and river in a furious spectacle. Considering the nature of the story, the name of the film doesn't quite capture the essence of what occurred along the way, since the 'Me' in the title seems to refer to Jolie's character, who became an equal opportunity target of the vicious assassins only when she took the young boy Connor under her wing.

A film paying homage to forest fires.

[LordCommandar · 2/10 · 14 May 2021]

Absolutely no story whatsoever to follow. I mean why did the two hitman go after the father? What did the boy's father write in that letter? What was the need for Tyler Perry's cameo scene? And Jolie was ridiculous with that bad wig on. So my only speculation is that it had to be a film paying homage to forest fires because nothing else made sense.

What was it all about?

[stevehyland · 6/10 · 20 February 2022]

As far as it goes, this movie was interesting enough. But what was it all about?

The DA is killed by two assassins. His friend, a forensic accountant, is killed by the same pair who then pursue the accountant's son. We are never told why - even though the son passes the father's secret information on to Angelina Jolie's character.

I was expecting to have all the answers before the credits, but was disappointed. This was the fundamental shortcoming of this otherwise enjoyable movie.