Those Who Wish Me Dead

 

Taylor Sheridan has become a unique voice recent filmmaking with such strong turns with the likes of Sicario, Hell or High Water, Wind River, and the fantastic Paramount Network series Yellowstone. So, when I heard he was teaming up with Angelina Jolie for the wilderness set thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead, I was very intrigued. While the film isn't as strong as some of Taylor's other efforts, it still stands as a intense thriller elevated by the writing and a very capable cast. 

Hannah Faber (played by Angelina Jolie) is a Smokejumper who is still struggling to recover from the trauma of being unable to save three campers and a fellow smokejumper during an intense forest fire. Now, she is posted in a fire watch tower in Park County, Montana. Meanwhile, forensic accountant Owen Casserly (played by Jake Weber) learns of the sudden death of his boss and boss' family in an apparent gas explosion at home. Correctly suspecting foul play, he packs up his son Connor (played by Finn Little) and hits the road looking to take refuge with his brother-in-law Ethan (played by Jon Bernthal), a Sheriff Deputy and Hannah's ex. Hot on Owen and Connor's trail are a pair of assassins, Jack Blackwell (played by Aiden Gillen) and Patrick Blackwell (played by Nicholas Hoult), who are able to quickly figure out where the two are headed and are there waiting when Owen and Connor are driving on a mountain road headed for Ethan's house. The resulting ambush causes Owen to crash the car. Knowing there is no escape, Owen instructs Conner to run before the assassins see him. Staying out of sight, Conner escapes and follows a creek which winds up leading him directly to Hannah, who is out on patrol of the area. It's not long before the two assassins discover Connor was in the car too and move to pursue the kid on the order of their boss, Arthur Phillip (played by Tyler Perry). In an effort to try and keep the police and other emergency services occupied, Jack uses several road flares to start a forest fire. After re-grouping with Connor at her Fire Watch Tower, she decides to take him on a hike back to town to meet with Ethan and the authorities only to discover not only are they cut off by a now massive forest fire but that the assassins are near as well leading to a tense stand off between Hannah, Connor and two trained killers in the midst of a raging forest fire. 

The film was directed by Taylor Sheridan from a script by Sheridan, Charles Leavitt and Michael Koryta and is based on Michael Koryta's novel of the same name. The filmmakers manage to elevate the rather familiar material by focusing on the characters that occupy their story and giving them more dimension. This approach also adds tension to the story as the film makes us care about these characters and by extension want to see them make it out alive as they face threats both human and otherwise (the raging forest fire). The filmmakers do also keep the action of the film grounded, which adds to the tension as we have our main characters having to rely on their wits to survive against two lethal killers. Our intrepid heroes do prove adept at that as well, including an unexpectedly inventive use of bear mace that really impressed me. All of this helps patch over the film's well-worn plot that aside from a couple twists feels pretty well-worn, especially for anyone who has seen films like Cliffhanger or The River Wild. The film also relies on some rather unconvincing CGI for the fire effects that I could not help but find a bit distracting. 

The film has assembled an impressive cast led by Angelina Jolie. Jolie does a great job as Hannah showing her character's struggles overcoming past trauma as well as her more adventurous side that includes some daredevil antics early in the film. Finn Little does well as Connor, portraying his character's inherent vulnerability as well as his resourcefulness. Aiden Gillan and Nicholas Hoult add some more dimension and personality to their characters than is usual for these types of films. They are still nasty villains, but they also feel a bit more fleshed out and real characters too. Medina Senghore, who plays Ethan's wife Allison, easily steals her scenes in a supporting role and is someone who turns out to be far more resourceful and formidable than she may appear to be.  

Overall, Those Who Wish Me Dead is a reasonably satisfying action thriller. The plot is very straightforward and well worn, but the cast certainly elevates things. Since a good thriller lives or dies by it's characters the fact that this one works as well as it does owes a lot to it's cast and giving us characters we can either root for or long to see defeated. So, by that merit the film worked for me. I knew where it was going, but the film still managed to keep me on the edge of my seat throughout nonetheless. It's a fairly routine thriller, but is made with skill and still works well enough for some reasonable Saturday evening entertainment.                       

Twister

There is something about Twister that I can't help but love. It is just so unabashedly entertaining about it and I usually watch it every summer. I can't help it. It may just be that I grew up in the Midwest where what to do in the case of a tornado is drilled into our heads at a young age. It could also be that my uncle Bruce is a Meteorologist, so I come by my interest in extreme weather naturally. Now, 25 years later, I still love this movie as much as I did back in the summer of 1996. Also, it's worth noting this film gave us the single greatest MPAA rating ever: Rated PG-13 for intense depiction of very bad weather.

Bill Harding (played by Bill Paxton) travels out into the field with his new fiancee, Melissa Reeves (played by Jami Gertz) to get divorce papers signed by his soon to be ex-wife Jo (played by Helen Hunt). Upon arriving and reuniting with his former Storm Chaser team, he discovers they had finally created a device he designed named DOROTHY that is created to aid in the study of tornados by releasing dozens of sensors into the tornado and transmit the data back to the team. With a onslaught of storms with the potential for numerous tornadoes, Bill can't resist the urge to re-join the team and try and bring his design to fruition, with Melissa along for the ride. Things get more complicated when another team shows up lead by Bill and Jo's former colleague, Jonas (played by Cary Elwes), who they discover has stolen Bill's design and created his own instrument pack. Now the race is on to see who can launch their pack first   

The film was directed by Jan DeBont from a script written by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin (with uncredited re-writes from the likes of Joss Whedon, Steven Zaillian and Jeff Nathanson). They crafted a fun adventure tale that runs tight getting started right away and keeping the action moving at a brisk pace with the love triangle between Bill, Jo and Melissa adding some weight to the story as well. Even 25 years later, the effects from Industrial Light and Magic still hold up for the most part (with a couple notable exceptions that never looked good). The film also makes good use of practical effects to simulate the extreme weather conditions including some inventive but harsh lighting techniques to make the skies behind the characters look darker than they really were. Then to top it off, we get a fantastic score for the film from Mark Mancina that remains one of my favorites. I purchased the expanded score album and I can confirm listening to it while driving across the prairies of North Dakota makes the drive feel a lot more exciting.  

The film assembled quite an impressive cast, led by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. Paxton and Hunt play off each other quite well as bickering exes that in the midst of the chaos of the film find their love for one another being rekindled. Helen Hunt has a bit more heavy lifting to do from a dramatic standpoint as her character Jo suffers from severe trauma of witnessing her father being killed during a tornado as a young girl and she pulls off those moments quite well. Up until this point, Bill Paxton had primarily been a well-respected character actor so this was a rare leading role for him but he just nails it perfectly. Jami Gertz does well in her role as Melissa and is often the comic relief offering up some of the more memorable ones of the film. The film is populated by a number of great character actors to add a little color to the film as well, including an early notable appearance by Philip Seymour Hoffman as the adrenaline junkie team member Dusty and Lois Smith as Jo's tough and wise Aunt Meg. Cary Elwes makes for a suitably smarmy villain as the rival team leader Jonas, whose personality and ego makes it clear why his former team members hate him so much. 

Twister is a film that I have loved ever since I saw it the theater back on Opening Night in May 1996. It's one of those films I've never gotten tired of watching. It is just straight up enjoyable popcorn entertainment. It also kicked off a whole new disaster movie trend over the latter half of the 90's, curiously with a number of them being duplicates (looking at you Dante's Peak/Volcano and Deep Impact/Armageddon). Still, for me Twister ranks as one of the best but then again I may be biased.