Rob Reviews "Heads of State"

Say what you want about Prime Video, but they know how to do an action film.  And they are now two in a row for John Cena.

After last year’s Jackpot!, he teams up with Idris Elba for Heads of State, directed by Ilya Naishuller (Nobody) and also includes Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Carla Gugino, Stephen Root, Jack Quaid, and Sarah Niles.  Cena plays Will Derringer, the President of the United States (yep, you read that right) who is also a former action film star (man, this seems to be paralleling somebody else’s TV show) who is really in over his head (well, maybe not that part).  As he heads to the United Kingdom for a summit with British Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Elba), things go awry as they are targeted by a foreign enemy (Paddy Considine), forcing an already contentious relationship into new territory as they fight to survive and expose enemies both inside AND outside of their organizations, maybe even with the help of someone from Clarke’s past.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: sometimes, you just need a good popcorn flick, and Heads of State is just that.  Lots of action, multiple laugh-out-loud moments, and a script that moves quite nicely.  The supporting cast (while not necessarily in the same place at the same time as the leads) keeps the “who can trust who” piece of it at a frenzy, which is a good thing, while Cena and Elba do their part with solid chemistry as an “Odd Couple with muscles”.  Granted, this is not on a Tom Clancy level of suspense, but there is a good balance with its comedy to even give me pause on where I thought the plot was going.

I don’t know if it is that as a society we have been spoiled the last couple of decades of filmmaking that has turned a chunk of us into film critics versus being movie reviewers, but I have made the decision in the last couple of years to lean more towards the latter of those two.  For those that are the former, Heads of State is not for you; this is simply a summertime action movie that knows what it needs to be and stays in its lane.  And there’s nothing wrong with THAT.