TL;DR – I was honestly surprised about how much I liked this film, John Cena and Idris Elba are a blast, the action scenes are solid, and it makes a couple of solid points with its story.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Prime Video service that viewed this film.

Heads of State Review –

There has been an interesting trend in action films recently. Back in the 1990s, it was common for the US President to be an action star, think Air Force One or Independence Day. But it has been a long time since I have seen it outside of some ‘has fallen’ films. But in the last year, we have gotten Rumours, Captain America: Brave New World, and G20, to name but a few. Now we get to see what John Cena and Idris Elba do in this world of a good old-fashioned UK-USA team-up.   

So, to set the scene, we open in Buñol, Spain, as La Tomatina is in full swing, where Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) is working a case for MI6/CIA to take out Russian arms dealer Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine). It was going well until her entire team was murdered in the street. Meanwhile, in London, embattled Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) is getting ready to meet US President Will Derringer (John Cena), a former action film star. After a disastrous press conference, the minders agree to diffuse the situation with the two jointly taking Air Force One to the NATO conference in Trieste. But when the plane is attacked, they are pushed out of the aircraft in parachutes; the only problem is that the attack has put them over Belarus, hostile territory.    

The banter between John Cena and Idris Elba is what is going to make or break the film for you. These characters clearly do not like each other at the start of the film, for some generally cogent reasons. John Cena is presented as this unready buffoon, an actor not a president. But he clearly is brighter than he appears, if wildly unprepared. While Idris Elba is meant to be the hardened politician who came up from nothing, but might be coming to the end of his career and is very bitter about things. There is a lot of sniping and griping before inevitably they find a partnership, and if you don’t like that kind of arc, then this is not the film for you. 

To support this, we get a bunch of character actors just having a blast. Putting aside his accent for a moment, Paddy Considine makes for a very effective villain for the film, and it is kind of fun getting to watch him be evil. Priyanka Chopra Jonas brings the action credentials that this film really needs and has an impact in every moment she is there. She also helps create a bit of a buffer between the two that stops their banter from getting stale. Stephen Root, Jack Quaid, Sarah Niles & Richard Coyle all arrive to create these fun moments throughout. However, Sharlto Copley was oddly wasted, unless he was meant to be a fun cameo.   

One strength is the action; we see that it works incredibly well in the opening attack on Air Force One. We get hand-to-hand combat, drone vs. gatling gun, and trying to manoeuvre through a crashing plane. This continues throughout the film with some fascinating set pieces that do make the most of each of the scenarios, like a CIA safehouse that is more than what it seems. They have fun with space and perspective, nothing crazy, but given how bland most action films are these days, any sort of work that plays in this space is a delight. Best still, they don’t rehash things, each action beat feels different, and frankly, it is nice to watch a film that cares. Look, they and the entire stunt team earn their Wilhelm Scream.

Then we come to the narrative of the film that is both surprising and entirely predictable. The messaging around the film is about working with friends to make a stronger and safer world. It is oddly a position that needs to be said more, given ‘waves hands around generally’. We also get a surprisingly solid explanation of collective security, which I was not expecting. However, while they try, it is honestly not a surprising story; people appear and betray in a very predictable pattern. If I want to get nitpicky, and I do, most of this film was talking about NATO, but ignores the fact that most of these countries that were threatening to break apart are also in the EU, which would be kind of the bigger deal in this situation. Also, one slightly [SPOILERY] point, but one of the things thrown out about NATO is that they keep dragging America into quote “their wars” and … um … I am not sure any recent history backs that up, it is honestly the other way around.

In the end, do we recommend Heads of State? It is a complete surprise for me to say this, but yes, yes, I do. I had a lot of fun with the leads, the action scenes were solid, and it straddled the line of being funny but not a farce, with a bit more depth than I was expecting. Have you watched Heads of State? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Heads of State, we would recommend to you The Suicide Squad.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Heads of State
Directed by – Ilya Naishuller
Story by – Harrison Query
Screenplay by – Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec & Harrison Query
Music by – Steven Price
Cinematography by – Ben Davis
Edited by – Tom Harrison-Read
Production/Distribution Companies – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, The Safran Company, Big Indie Pictures & Amazon Prime
Starring – John Cena, Idris Elba, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Paddy Considine, Carla Gugino, Stephen Root, Jack Quaid, Sarah Niles, Richard Coyle, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Katrina Durden, Wade Briggs, Clare Foster, Robyn Pennington, Adrian Lukis, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Sharlto Copley, Steven Cree, Huw Novelli, Aled llŷr Thomas, Arthur Lee, Peter Guiney, Shaq B. Grant & Dasha Charusha
Rating – Australia: MA15+