Perhaps a perfect popcorn flick for moviegoers who can close off their brains and enjoy a decent action story with some pretty good cinematography that also stars one of the most marketable movie actors of the last 25 years, Those Who Wish Me Dead is a movie that fails to capitalize on its potential. Outside of Maleficent, Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted, A Mighty Heart) hasn’t had the best decade in front of the camera. However, her fanbase is still tremendous. Her opportunity to return to the action-adventure drama helped solidify her career (Salt, Wanted, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, Mr. and Mrs. Smith). She may have done enough to secure future starring roles with her physically impressive performance as a Montana smokejumper named Hannah. She was the highlight of Taylor Sheridan’s (Sicario, Wind River) movie that otherwise failed to deliver.
Category Archives: Angelina Jolie
By the Sea (2015)
Just because two people embark on an extended vacation to one of the most beautiful places in the world doesn’t mean that happiness is guaranteed to come with them. Such is the tale of Vanessa (Angelina Jolie – Girl, Interrupted, Changeling) and Roland (Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Moneyball), a married couple of 14 years who set out for a remote French seaside town for some quiet time together in a local hotel that offers a stunning view of the landscape it sits next to, which happens to be the Mediterranean Sea. He’s a writer looking for inspiration. She’s a retired ex-dancer. But, unfortunately, all is not well and has not been well for quite some time in the Angelina-directed (Unbroken) By the Sea.
Unbroken (2014)
In my opinion, the two best series of trailers for 2014 have been Unbroken and American Sniper. These were two of, if not the, most anticipated movies of the year for more. I apologize to Foxcatcher, which had a fantastic trailer and was a movie I was looking forward to. It not only met but exceeded expectations. These two Christmas Day movies have had me buzzing for months. Unfortunately, as the reviews began pouring in, I realized these movies would probably fall short of expectations. American Sniper is currently in the 70% range on Rotten Tomatoes, while Unbroken was way down at around 50%. I have not yet seen American Sniper, but based on the small reviews I have read, I believe I know where it was going to fall short. I think that if outsiders had screened this movie before its completion, there could have been some influence on the film’s sequencing that would better tell Chris Kyle’s story after his tours of duty. Again, this is my prediction before viewing the movie, but I have a feeling I’m going to say that it was a good movie that could have potentially been in my top ten of all time. Unfortunately, I did not feel the same way about Unbroken. The trailer didn’t live up to the movie, and I’m not sure any editing could have changed that. I found this movie to be very disappointing.
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Salt (2010)
The one thing I kept focusing on during my viewing of Salt was that this movie was written specifically with the idea that Tom Cruise would be playing the lead role. Instead, Cruise opted to co-star with Cameron Diaz in the romantic adventure Knight and Day. And while Knight and Day was pleasantly entertaining and a movie I recommend, Cruise would have preferred to have Salt in his filmography rather than Knight and Day. I believe he took Knight and Day because the role allowed him to be a quirky, jovial type of character and also because many might identify Salt as a Mission Impossible franchise movie.