Plot: In 1987, while flying a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird on a mission over Soviet Russia, a US Air Force Pilot is forced to eject his plane to survive a mid-air collision with a MiG-29. In the Russian wilderness, he meets and befriends a Russian ex-KGB carpenter who agrees to help him escape enemy territory
Review: While the 1980s were the heyday of the buddy cop genre, there are very few that mined the Cold War as a setting or subject. Other than the Arnold Schwarzenegger/Jim Belushi flick Red Heat, there are few movies that utilized the adversarial relationship between the U.S.S.R. and the United States for comedic effect. Sure, the Russians were solid villains in everything from Rocky IV to Red Dawn, but showing the Soviet Union in a favorable light would never have happened back int the day. Now, with the political climate flipped but still posing the U.S.A. and Russia in an adversarial light, the action-comedy Mayday arrives to mine the two world powers as mismatched but more alike than they give each other credit for. Ryan Reynolds brings his usual smart-ass charm while Kenneth Branagh does the heavy lifting in one of the best cinematic pairings in a long time. Mayday plays by the expected elements of the buddy genre while delivering a hefty dose of fun along the way.
Set in 1987, Mayday opens with Navy pilot Troy “Assassin” Kelly (Ryan Reynolds) saving his buddy in a mid-flight maneuver, proving his skills to his superiors. Kelly gets the chance to work on a top-secret spy mission that leaves him in the middle of the Russian wilderness, where he is rescued by hermit Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh). Nik, as Ustinov prefers to be called, is an unabashed fan of the United States and is obsessed with Top Gun. Getting the chance to save an actual fighter pilot in Troy gives Nik hope of defecting to the United States, but Troy doesn’t realize that Nik is a former KGB officer who has incredible fighting skills. When current KGB leader Alexander Volkov (Marcin Dorocinski) makes it his personal mission to capture Troy, Nik takes his new American friend on a trip towards the border to save them both. Mayday mines a road trip movie blended with an extended chase to deliver one of the most fun action movies in quite some time.
Aside from opening scenes filmed in San Diego, the majority of Mayday takes place in Russia, flipping the dynamic from Red Heat, which brought the Russians to Chicago. Here, Ryan Reynolds is the fish out of water as he tries to survive the singular Soviet hatred of Americans. Reynolds still quips with the best of them and delivers some memorable one-liners, but he plays Troy as more of a straight man opposite Kenneth Branagh’s impressive fighter and reformed warrior, Nik. Branagh is one of the finest actors and filmmakers working today and has spent much of the last decade trading his Northern Irish accent for Russian accents, having played memorable villains in both 2014’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. Branagh can do it all, and here plays Hollywood hero for the first time in his career. Similar to how Bob Odenkirk upended expectations as a physical badass in Normal and the Nobody films, Branagh at sixty-five makes for a great stunt-heavy hero. With some creative editing, Mayday seamlessly shifts between Branagh and Reynolds in action sequences using their stunt doubles while keeping the action propulsive, brutal, and fun.
It may sound cliché to say that they don’t make movies like Mayday as they used to, and I felt it strongly as I watched this flick. There is a charming lightness to the material that initially pits Kelly and Nik opposite each other. Nik loves America, while Kelly sees the Soviet Union as a brutal dictatorship that brainwashes its people. Both view one another’s country as a stereotype, and this brings them together while also creating a narrative rift, but there is a message about judgment and preconceived notions that absolves neither the U.S.A. nor the U.S.S.R. and instead shows what the people are like rather than what politics would have you believe. There is a little bit of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles in the charm of Mayday mixed in with the caliber of action we have seen in John Wick and Atomic Blonde. It also helps that there is just the right amount of comedy that keeps you laughing without turning the movie into a joke. Because you can take it seriously, it works so much better and resonates. There are a few other recognizable actors in the cast, including David Morse as Troy’s dad and Maria Bakalova as Nik’s daughter, both of whom are very good in small roles.
Written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, Mayday has the same wit and pacing as their underappreciated Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Mayday is not nearly as CGI-heavy as that fantasy movie, but it has a similar comedic sensibility. Goldstein and Daley have done great work with comedy writing in Horrible Bosses and action-forward movies like Spider-Man: Homecoming, and have blended the two as directors in the comedy-action movie Game Night. Mayday is more action-heavy and comedy second, but it keeps both genres working well together. The crisp, digital visuals of Mayday detract a little by giving the movie a too-clean appearance, but it more than makes up for it with multiple set pieces that rank as the best of the year. From two very different aerial action sequences to a chase involving a missile launcher, as well as not one but three incredible hand-to-hand fight scenes, you easily forget that the movie is also full of memorable 80s songs that fit perfectly into the plot without feeling like nostalgia bait.
Mayday is easily the best movie not hitting the big screen this year and one of the best streaming-only releases I can think of. Ryan Reynolds has proven he can partner with virtually anyone and make it into movie magic, but his chemistry with Kenneth Branagh ranks up there alongside his work with Hugh Jackman. Mayday is a wasted opportunity for Apple Studios and Skydance to have closed out the summer at the multiplex with an ideal action blockbuster that proves why old-school action-comedies are still worth watching when they are done well. I would love to see Kenneth Branagh and Ryan Reynolds make more movies together, but if they don’t, I hope that Branagh gets more chances to be a cinematic action hero in between winning Oscars and directing marquee Shakespearean-caliber drama. Mayday ranks as one of my top ten movies of this summer and could crack my end-of-year list as well.
Mayday premieres on Apple TV on September 4th.
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