by Jeff Alan, Contributing Writer
Amazon Prime has recently had a tendency of putting out standard, run-of-the-mill action and comedy movies that don’t really move the needle, a phase which they definitely don’t avoid with Heads of State. Starring John Cena and Idris Elba, the film is directed by Ilya Naishuller, whose directing debut was Hardcore Henry, and whose most recent mainstream film was the Bob Odenkirk action film Nobody. He comes back to the forefront with this film that leaves a lot to be desired given the talent involved.
Heads of State follows the U.K. Prime Minister and former British Army veteran Sam Clarke (Elba) and recently elected United States President, and famous action movie star-turned-politician, Will Derringer (Cena), who convene for a long-awaited meeting on the way to Italy for a NATO summit. The two world powers have a tense first meeting, followed by Derringer offering to host Clarke on Air Force One to get to Italy, with Derringer accepting to help boost his approval numbers. On the flight, however, the plane is sabotaged by the hired mercenaries of a ruthless arms dealer named Gradov (Paddy Considine), and Clarke and Derringer are both ejected from the plane using parachutes. As the world assumes the two leaders are dead, Derringer and Clarke start to piece together the bigger plot unfolding before them, setting out on a mission to get back to their governments to stop the Gradov from gaining more control than he already has.
For a film that is labeled as an “action comedy” Heads of State is very unfunny, and no, I don’t mean that it leans more into action than comedy. The funny parts are not even close to humorous. It’s the kind of not funny that isn’t exactly cringy, but the kind that has moments of levity, but doesn’t really know what to do with it. It’s rare for a me to watch a film like that and not even laugh once. It’s trying to do both action and comedy at the same time, but luckily it excels more in the action than it does in the comedy.
The action sequences are probably the highlight of the film, giving Elba more to do, and leaving Cena as a slight afterthought, seeing as his character is supposed to be an action movie star, and not a person who actually knows how to handle a gun and fight people, with Elba’s character even saying that Cena’s character’s muscles are essentially all for show.
Cena and Elba are a fun enough pairing. They have some good back-and-forth dialogue, and moments where they work well together as a reluctant duo, but it’s not as fun as other movie duos have been in the past. Other characters come into the fray, like Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Noel, an MI6 agent with a personal history with Clarke; Stephen Root, who is perfectly fine in the film, but has very little to do; and Carla Gugino, who plays the U.S. vice president who tries to help smooth over the gap left by Derringer’s assumed death. One brief surprising sequence of fun in the film was the appearance of Jack Quaid. He is a likable actor, and when he’s on screen, it feels much more like a comedy. However, my fun was short lived, because his contribution to the film lasts for only about five minutes, and then he’s gone. But in that short time frame, I was starting to see fun in this movie.
The rest of the film is essentially paint by numbers. Everything goes more or less exactly how you would expect it to, and everything is wrapped up at the end. With the amount of talent present, and knowing the director at the helm had done two intense action movies before this, I was expecting Heads of State to be more fun and less “opposites attract buddy leaders” type of movie. If it would have either gone harder with either the action some of its comedy, it could have been better. Being that we normally see Cena doing raunchier comedy than this, having his character go further into that direction might have made the comedy side of the film way more enjoyable.
Instead, we get a comedically half-baked action film with a predictable plot and adequate acting. As much as I like all of the people involved, it’s just not that enjoyable of a watch. But when I look back at some of the other straight-to-streaming movies Amazon Prime puts out in a regular basis, should I really be that surprised?
Rating: Low Side of It Was Just Okay
Heads of State is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video
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