Those Who Wish Me Dead is a sepia-tinged escapist watch

THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD

(15) 100mins

★★★☆☆

IF you haven’t heard of a smokejumper before, it’s not an old woolly you pull on to nip out for a ciggy.

In fact, it is an elite “special ops” firefighter who parachutes into wildfires to douse raging flames.

In the forest-filled US state of Montana, Hannah Faber (Angelina Jolie) is one such inferno-leaper, a “one of the lads” type, brave, tough and — obviously, because it’s Angie — incredibly beautiful.

But Hannah is tormented by a past mistake, when the wind blew the wrong way and children burned.

With shades of Eighties/Nineties classics Top Gun and Backdraft, we meet her, jumpsuit-clad, the lone female, drinking beer and joking with the guys, before parachuting off the back of a pick-up truck as a dare.

The punishment for this stunt lands her alone in a remote watchtower, with only an encroaching storm and flashbacks of that fatal blaze for company.

In an abrupt handbrake turn from this “bros and banter” beginning, writer-director Taylor Sheridan — who wrote 2015 action thriller Sicario — leaves Hannah up in thundery skies, and off to the city we go.

There, hitmen duo Jack and Patrick (an excellently hammy Aidan Gillen and amusing Nicholas Hoult) need to murder the dad of 12-year-old Connor Cassidy (an outstanding Finn Little from Storm Boy).

Father and son flee to Montana, but the killers are hot on their heels and ultimately only Connor survives.

Hannah finds him in the forest and, in a neat redemption arc, vows to get him to safety.

Now we’re firmly in typical cat- and-mouse thriller territory, as our assassins pursue their targets, burning down trees like predatory pyromaniacs in their wake.

The non-stop action, plus full-throttle special-effect fires and lightning strikes, helpfully distract from the slim plot.

It’s never really clear why Connor must die too, or what his dad did.
Angelina’s Hannah smouldering as much as the endless CGI flames often seems incongruous.

And pregnant survival school owner Allison (Medina Senghore) galloping on horseback over moonlit plains to the rescue isn’t a romantic homage to Westerns. It just jars.

But thanks to a relentless pace, everything somehow rollicks along despite the glaring flaws.

Glossy, with a great cast, there are no prizes for originality here. But extinguish your disbelief and it’s a satisfying, sepia-tinged escapist watch.

• In cinemas from Monday

MAYA THE BEE: THE GOLDEN ORB

(PG) 88mins

★★★☆☆

ANYONE who has seen 1980s flick Honey, I Shrunk The Kids will know being tiny comes with its challenges.

But stepping into a world of towering grass, giant puddles and enormous ­pollen-stuffed flowers holds a timeless magic for viewers, whatever your age.

So it’s a joy to meet Maya the bee in her hive. Here pebbles are the size of mountains, while mushrooms, marquees and petals unfold like picnic blankets.

The story begins on the first day of spring. Maya (voiced by Coco Jack Gillies) is a headstrong little bee who persuades her best bee friend Willi (Benson Jack Anthony) to break out of hibernation early.

The pals cause havoc by waking a gang of “hangry” neon-coloured glow worms who invade the hive. The Queen bee isn’t happy.

From here Maya and Willi are catapulted into a mission to safely deliver a golden orb to Bonsai Peak and rescue a baby ant princess.

The brave young bees get caught up in a turf war between ants and “boom bugs”, a ruthless tribe of superhero-styled beetles.

In the third feature film in the franchise, director Noel Cleary delivers a feel-good movie anchored in the importance of friendship, freedom and facing fears.

• In cinemas Monday

SOME KIND OF HEAVEN

(12) 83mins

★★★★★

LIKE the haunting lyrics of The Eagles’ track Hotel California, the OAP community The Villages in Florida seems like a place you could check out any time . . . but never leave.

America’s largest retirement community is the ­subject of this fascinating and often laugh-out-loud funny documentary by Lance Oppenheim and Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky.

The Villages is a disconcerting place of manmade olden-time streets, a pre-paid paradise where the occupants live a surreal existence of organised fun with dance clubs, drama classes and singles clubs.

But behind the relentless joy of pampered pensioners often lies darkness and despair. This is played out without ever being condescending.

The real-life characters are surprising and dealt with perfectly. The film shows their struggles with an existence that looks like it was created by Walt Disney.

The hedonism of living in a brand-new “perfect” place soon reveals itself as being as lonely and chaotic as the rest of the world. This could be heaven . . . or hell.

• On Curzon Home ­Cinema, Amazon, iTunes