Heads of State

Heads of State is exactly what it promises: a fast-paced, action-packed buddy comedy that leans into its absurdity with style, big laughs and big action set pieces. Ilya Naishuller directs a script by Harrison Query, John Applebaum and Andre Nemec, which clearly understands the assignment—pair two mismatched but magnetic leads, toss them into a high-stakes international mess, and let the chemistry and chaos unfold. John Cena and Idris Elba headline the action-comedy as two political powerhouses. Cena plays Will Derringer, a former action movie star whose latest job is as President of the United States, while Idris Elba plays Sam Clarke, the current Prime Minister of the UK. The latter’s calm, calculating exterior hides a former life in the British special armed forces, whereas Derringer relies on his celebrity to skate through his tenure. When a diplomatic visit to England almost goes off the rails (over a plate of fish and chips, among things), a little diplomatic engineering provides the perfect photo-op to change the narrative surrounding their public discord. Derringer and Clarke travel on Air Force One together, but things go sideways while they are en route to a NATO meeting in Italy.

Agent Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) does it first. “We’ll ketchup with you…” British Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) later ketchups up with her. “Everything harpoons for a reason,” he says self-consciously after they’ve emerged from a series of set action pieces with multiple weapons. But it’s weapons’ lord Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine), a Russian arms dealer with more money to burn than the security budgets of the US and UK put together, topped with a personal revenge agenda, who’s set off the action all over. Especially targeting the President of the United States of America Will Derringer (John Cena), a Reagan type actor-turned-politician, and PM Clarke. Director Ilya Naishuller (Russian filmmaker) with writers Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Harrison Query, make a punny, funny, action film where the end’s obvious but the ride is lighthearted.

A key part of movie promotions these days involves the lead cast going on the talk show circuit (as they normally would), and instructing the audience to essentially lower their expectations. In fact, it’s almost as if Priyanka Chopra remembered all those times that she and her fellow Bollywood stars sold their movies by telling viewers to leave their brains outside the theatre, and introduced this strategy to her new friends in Hollywood. She’s been going around saying that her new action film Heads of State is an undemanding Friday night watch, but, unsurprisingly, it fails to meet even those standards. Directed by Ilya Naishuller, who previously made Hardcore Henry and Nobody, Heads of State is the kind of Prime Video programming that enters your eyeballs, bypasses your brain, and leaks out of your ears. Like his previous films — Hardcore Henry was presented in first person, while Nobody transported a middle-aged man into a John Wick-style world — Heads of State works better as a concept than in execution. It stars John Cena as the President of the United States and Idris Elba as the British Prime Minister, while Chopra plays an MI6 agent who might as well have been airdropped into the movie from Citadel.