Heads of State is an action comedy featuring a mismatched duo forced to work together against a common foe who wants them both dead. Pretty standard stuff, except that the pair happens to be the US President and the UK Prime Minister.
It’s the highest of high concepts, but the buddy movie formula is unchanged: they bicker, fight bad guys and wisecrack their way through explosions.
John Cena plays US President and former action movie star Will Derringer. This will probably become reality at some point. The only part I had trouble believing is the President being a white man. I know that happens a lot in real life, but you don’t see it much in movies (because it’s fiction) and my brain was struggling with it.
I can confidently say, without any research whatsoever, that the last time a white man played the president in a Hollywood movie was Independence Day in 1994. I’m not accepting any dissent on this point.
Idris Elba plays UK Prime Minister Sam Clarke. This would never happen in real life, but not because of racism. We’ve got a whole system set up to keep popular and decent people from being voted into high office. If I could, I’d vote for him.
Sam is a serious politician suffering in the polls. Will is newly elected, popular and great on the mic (duh – he’s John Cena). Sam is a former solder and Will a former actor who pretended to be a soldier.
Also, Sam shared fish and chips with Will’s opponent before he was elected, and it’s a bone of contention between them.
Add all that to the usual US/UK cultural differences (stuffy Brits versus brash Americans etc) and Heads of State is a recipe for action-comedy gold, if executed correctly. If.
The Catch
Then I remembered that Heads of State is from Amazon Studios, who seem to specialise in lightweight high concept movies that are ‘good enough’ (like Deep Cover) but don’t strive for excellence.
Never forget that this is the same studio that barfed out G20, another ‘US President fighting terrorists’ movie riddled with identity politics and laughable action scenes.
But… stone me, Heads of State is actually pretty good. The chemistry and banter between the leads is on point and the action is entertaining. The politics are kept to a minimum. We don’t know which parties Will or Sam represent, for example.
On the flip side, there is a fair amount of girl bossing, but I suppose that’s just our lives now.
The director, Ilya Naishuller, also directed Nobody and Hardcore Henry, which was just nuts (in a good way).
The State Of The Nation (Or The Plot)
After a public fallout at a press conference in London, Will and Sam reluctantly agree to take a PR trip on Air Force One, grab a photo opportunity and play nice. Well-resourced terrorists led by Paddy Considine’s Russian weapons smuggler, Viktor Gradov, shoot the plane out of the sky.
Sam and Will escape by parachute and end up in not-so-friendly Belarus. They have to make it back to civilisation while being hunted.
They can’t reveal they’re alive because they don’t know who they can trust. The terrorists have someone on the inside, you see – a mastermind who wants to use the crisis to topple NATO for ideological reasons.
There’s more to the plot than I’ll reveal here. It’s mostly okay, if a little basic at times. It’s not credible that they wouldn’t reveal they were alive straight away, but the plot needs this to keep rolling, so we’ll have to go with it.
Viktor is an interesting character whose motivation for killing the world leaders is personal and not driven by ideology, putting him at odds with his employer.
There are double crosses and villain reveals, but most of the plot twists are easy to spot.
The idea of toppling NATO is the closest Heads of State gets to commenting on real life politics. It comes down squarely on the side of preserving the alliance. It’s relatively uncontroversial and represents only a small part of the movie.
Most of the runtime is spent with Sam and Will, and that’s where it shines.
The Will and Sam Show
Will and Sam’s characters are more nuanced than expected. When the shit hits the fan, I expected Sam to turn into a one-man-army super soldier. But he never saw battle, and has lost a step from his years in politics.
While holding off the bad guys, he reaches into a bag of weapons and accidentally pulls a pin on a grenade. He ends up having to throw the entire bag at them.
Will is fit and muscular (duh – he’s John Cena) but struggles to keep up at times because he’s only ‘gym fit.’ He looks good holding a gun but can’t aim for shit.
I like that both these guys aren’t really up to the task and are just muddling through.
Most of the action is handled by Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ MI6 agent, Noel Bisset. At the start, her team is ambushed when an operation to capture Viktor goes wrong (these Russians are always called Victor, but this time, it’s with a k).
Noel girlbosses most of the terrorists to death but, in a shocking twist, gets blasted in the chest by a shotgun. She gets better and returns an hour later, with a funny micro montage filling in the time gap (a device that the movie uses twice).
To be fair, Chopra Jonas is really good and handles the fight scenes well. She’s still beating up men twice her size, but you can tell she’s put in the training to make it look convincing. She’s also not afraid to show a bit of cleavage, which sweetens the deal. Sam and Noel are former lovers, so there’s even a little romance.
Jack Quaid stands out in a memorable cameo, playing a gun-crazy CIA safehouse operative. The supporting cast is stacked with character actors like Stephen Root, Sarah Niles and Carla Gugino. Even Viktor’s henchmen/henchwomen seem convincing.
Overall
While I doubt it will live long in the memory, Heads of State is a decent, well balanced action comedy that probably deserved a theatrical release. It’s out now on Amazon Prime.
