Those Who Wish Me Dead review roundup: Angelina Jolie’s action-thriller pleases critics

The first reviews of Angelina Jolie’s new movie Those Who Wish Me Dead are here. In this neo-western action-thriller, Jolie plays Hannah, a smokejumper (firefighters who work to stop wildfires), who comes across a child hunted by two deadly assassins.

The Taylor Sheridan directorial also stars Nicholas Hoult, Aidan Gillen, Jon Bernthal, Tyler Perry, Jake Weber, James Jordan and Tory Kittles.

Thus far, Those Who Wish Me Dead has evoked mostly positive critical reception. After 43 reviews, it holds a rating of 72 per cent on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

The critical consensus reads, “A squarely traditional ’90s-style action thriller, Those Who Wish Me Dead is elevated by Taylor Sheridan’s propulsive direction.”

Sydney Morning Herald’s Sandra Hall wrote in her review, “The effectiveness of all this means the actors have to work hard not to be upstaged by nature. But Jolie and Little, who’s Australian and the star of the 2019 remake of Storm Boy, strike up an engaging rapport.”

Deadline’s Pete Hammond noted, “Although the bad guys in this one are fairly stock, and what they are so intensely pursuing is somewhat murky, Sheridan makes this all pop nicely off the screen with some nice story detours.”

Financial Times’ Danny Leigh was less pleased. “Formulaic enough to have come from a packet, Those Who Wish Me Dead is exactly the kind of banged-out action thriller that would have once starred Sylvester Stallone or a smirking Bruce Willis, cast as a rowdy firefighter with a past,” he wrote.

AV Club’s AA Dowd pointed out the film’s thin plot. He said, “Agreeably straightforward, Those Who Wish Me Dead is also thin as kindling: It threatens to disperse into embers as you watch it. And there are limits to its ruthless economy.”

Those Who Wish Me Dead will release on May 14 in theatres and HBO Max simultaneously in the US.