Head Fake

Well, I was looking for some stupid action, and Heads of State (2025). certainly filled the bill.

It starts in Spain, during the annual tomato-throwing festival (real thing, look it up). A news crew are actually a joint US/UK security operation, looking for Russian arms dealer Paddy Considine. There are a number of Considine look-alike decoys, so they call on ECHELON for gait recognition. But it's all a trap to get access to ECHELON. The ops are all killed, and Considine gets away.

Now we meet our stars. Idris Elba is the new British prime minister, embattled in the polls. John Cena is the ex-action star, now popular US president. Elba is a serious, slightly depressive type, Cena a gung-ho America-Fuck-Yeah type. They don't get along. A reporter at their joint press conference asks about the disaster in Spain, raising the tension even more. To show US/UK unity, Cena reluctantly offers to give Elba a ride on Air Force One to a conference in Trieste. But on the way, they are attacked and blown out of the sky.

Our two world leaders get out in parachutes, and make their way to a Warsawsafe house, manned by a kooky agent, Jack Quaid. Since the plot against them must have been an inside operation, they can't trust anyone. And so the race is on to get to Trieste, before the whole world order is overthrown.

I want to say this movie is much better than it has to be. The action is very good, almost too good - the downing of Air Force One is a little intense for an action-comedy. Of course, it was made by the director of Nobody, Ilya Naishuler. Coincidentally, Quaid was in another "normal guy meets action plot", Novocaine. The leads are charismatic as hell (of course) and have a nice Odd Couple chemistry.

But there are problems, mainly due to the current state of US politics. Cena plays a populist who mistakes movies for real life, like Reagan. But the US is under a very different kind of populist. Part of the plot of the film is that the bad guys want to disrupt and break up NATO, and Cena and Elba want to prevent that. Whereas the current US president is working hard to dismantle NATO, for the benefit of Russia. And so on. it makes it hard to laugh at some of Cena's antics. The movie also makes Elba, who wants to make careful, seem to be a bit of a killjoy, while a lot of uis would kill for a thoughtful leader. At least it turns out that Elba's prime minister was a real soldier and low-key badass, not just the movie version. 

I'm leaving out a bunch of good supporting actors, like Stephen Root, Carla Gugino, and Sharlto Copley, but now I've mentioned them. That's about all I have to say about the movie. I think it will be a lot more fun to watch in ten or twenty years. At least, I hope so.