Heads of State - Review 

Rating: 3 out of 5

IDRIS Elba and John Cena headline an action-comedy that leans heavily into current global tensions while playing like an ‘80s throwback to the likes of Lethal Weapon, Tango & Cash and Air Force One.

Directed by Ilya Naishuller, of Nobody fame, Heads of State is the type of brash Hollywood blockbuster that they don’t really make any more - films that are best enjoyed with your brain in neutral and which serve as a mindless diversion to kick back and enjoy.

It’s absurdly fun, with heavier emphasis on the absurd.

Elba plays UK Prime Minister Clarke, an ex-Army political veteran enduring a ratings slump, while Cena is US President Derringer, just six months in office and resentful that Clarke didn’t offer more support in getting him elected.

They meet for the first time at a NATO summit designed to unveil an energy initiative but immediately - and publicly - fall foul of each other, prompting a PR-based rescue attempt aboard Air Force One.

But when terrorists - supported by arms dealer Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine) - shoot down the plane over Eastern Europe, Clarke and Derringer are forced to put their differences aside and team up to survive as an army of Gradov’s henchmen, led by Sasha and Olga (Aleksandr Kuznetsov and Katrina Durden) close in.

Belatedly assisting the politicians is a feisty MI6 agent named Noel (Priyanka Chopra), who adds firepower and her own reasons for wanting to take down Gradov, following the massacre of her team at his hands at a pre-credits action sequence in Spain.

In many ways, Heads of State plays like a remix of countless action movies from years gone by, whether it’s the globe-trotting likes of 007 and Bourne, the mid-matched scenarios of Hobbs and Shaw, or the super-sized action films that catapulted the likes of Schwarzenegger and Stallone to fame.

And that’s fine, particularly if you’re a fan of that genre.

Naishuller, as he proved with Nobody, knows his way around an action sequence and can also inject some comedic elements - hence, an early encounter between Elba, Cena and some Estonian criminals over the theft of a car is inventive in the way it successfully mixes some bone-crunching physicality with some absurdist humour.

And an extended sequence involving a gun-crazy CIA safe house watchman (played with relish by The Boys’ Jack Quaid) also delivers another OTT highlight, complete with a kick-ass soundtrack accompaniment from Beastie Boys’ Sabotage.

Elba and Cena make a decent double act, picking up on their work in The Suicide Squad, while Chopra is a dynamic action heroine, akin to the no-nonsense approach of Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde.

And nods to global tensions - such as the debate surrounding the value of NATO or the ‘appeal’ of populist presidents - add a little food for thought without really having too much to say.

The only real problems with Heads of State stem from its rigid adherence to formula (there’s nothing here to really surprise or innovate) and Considine’s frustratingly one dimensional villain - waste of both the actor’s talents and a storytelling aside that could (and perhaps should) have offered a little more moral complexity.

But taken at face value, Heads of State does exactly what it says on the label - offering almost two hours of shoot ‘em up mayhem that hits most of what it aims at.

Certificate: 12A

Running time: 1hr 54mins