Looking for a new movie to stream this weekend? Angelina Jolie stars in the blazing action thriller “Those Who Wish Me Dead,” which debuted in theaters and on HBO Max on Friday. The Taylor Sheridan-directed film, adapted from a Michael Koryta novel of the same name, is about a boy who witnesses his father’s murder and subsequently goes on the run to escape assassins. Finn Little plays Connor Casserly, a young boy found bruised and bloodied while stumbling through a wooded area after his father Owen (Jake Weber) gets murdered by the assassins now trailing him. Veteran firefighter Hannah Faber (Jolie) takes the boy in and lets him hide in her lookout tower. When the assassins set the hideaway on fire the duo must figure out how to survive with trained killers closing in on them. The film’s cast includes Nicholas Hoult, Aidan Gillen, Jon Bernthal, and Tyler Perry, who makes a cameo as the assassins’ boss.
“Those Who Wish Me Dead,” is the most recent Warner Bros. release to simultaneously arrive in theaters and on the streaming platform. The movie will be streaming on HBO Max for the next 31 days. That means you can watch it as many times as you want before it’s gone. Not subscribed to HBO Max? Join for just $14.99 a month and instantly start streaming from a massive digital library where you’ll find everything from blockbusters to cult favorites and classic cinema; in addition to a wide selection of TV shows, international reality series, documentaries, and exclusive content — including every other Warner Bros. movie slated for theatrical release this year (new releases will only be available for the first month after they hit theaters). HBO Max is also home to “Mortal Kombat” which leaves the platform on May 23. Other original programming includes “Mare of Easttown” starring Kate Winslet, and the upcoming “Friends” reunion, which is slated to debut later this month. As a mother of six, Jolie had to suppress some of her maternal instincts to play the role of a childless firefighter. “My character is not maternal by nature,“ she told Entertainment Weekly. “Sometimes Taylor would correct me because my behavior towards a child was different from [Hannah’s] behavior towards a child. It took me a little bit to treat [Little] badly, but I got there!“ IndieWire’s senior film critic David Ehrlich described the movie as, “A simple but smoldering throwback to the days when all you needed to make a decent action film was a big star, a striking location, and a few cold henchman carrying those fancy machine guns with the red laser sights.“
“‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’ is nothing short of the most rock-solid blockbuster of the 1994 summer movie season,“ added Ehrlich. “In 2021, it can’t help but feel like an unintended anachronism; as if Sheridan aimed for something that matched the gravitas he wrote into ‘Sicario’ or the dark portent he blew into ‘Wind River,’ fell very far short, and landed in a pillowy bed of old popcorn instead.” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
