Say what you will about the Idris Elba-John Cena vehicle “Heads of State,” but it’s surely the first buddy comedy about the fraying bonds of NATO.
The potential collapse of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization plays a surprisingly pivotal role in this fitfully diverting, for-background-noise-only, straight-to-streaming movie. Elba plays the embattled British Prime Minister Sam Clarke, while Cena co-stars as the recently elected US President Will Derringer, a former action star.
“Heads of State,” directed by Ilya Naishuller (“Nobody”), is mostly about their relationship, a tense and adversarial one challenged further when an assassination plot leaves them stranded together in Belarus. But that “Heads of State,” which debuts Wednesday on Prime Video, is such a mild romp makes it all the more surprising to hear a line uttered like: “If NATO falls, there’s no backstop against despots and dictators.”
It’s a funny time to release a comedy set around international political disconnection and imperiled Western democracy. But if you were beginning to worry that “Heads of State” is too timely, don’t. Any nods to current events here serve more as reminders of how much “Heads of State” — like most of Hollywood’s output — is unengaged with anything resembling our political reality.
You could argue that that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You could also argue that the greater sin of “Heads of State” is underusing Stephen Root. (He plays an expert working for the bad guys.) But the vaguest hints of real-world intrigue only cast a pale light on the movie’s mostly lackluster comic chops and uninspired action sequences.
The best thing going for “Heads of State” is that the chemistry between Elba and Cena is solid. The “Suicide Squad” co-stars trade barbs with a genial ease. Most of the time, those revolve around their characters’ divergent histories — Clarke was a commando before becoming a politician — in debates like which one of them is “gym strong” as opposed to “strong strong.”
That’s one of the few decent gags in the script by Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec and Harrison Query. But one problem in “Heads of State” goes beyond the high-concept set-up. The best buddy comedies — “Midnight Run,” “48 Hrs.,” “The Nice Guys” — are predicated on opposites thrown together. Elba and Cena have their obvious differences. (Cena’s Derringer is exaggeratedly optimistic here, too.) But ultimately they’re both beefy dudes in suits.
As the MI6 agent Noel Bisset, Priyanka Chopra Jones gives the movie a kick. But her scenes are left to the beginning and end of the movie. In between, we’re left to wonder where she went, how two political leaders would have such non-existent security and whether a few half-decent jokes are enough to forgive the movie's geopolitical delusions.
