‘Heads of State’ REVIEW: An urgent call for more unique action comedies
‘Heads of State’ REVIEW: An urgent call for more unique action comedies
Idris Elba and John Cena as Sam Clarke and Will Derringer in Heads of State | Still courtesy of Amazon Prime
Heads of State, Amazon Prime’s newest action comedy, makes a joke out of the volatile political state of the world. It centers on former actor Will Derringer (John Cena), newly elected President of the United States, joining forces with his political rival, UK’s Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba), as Air Force One is struck above enemy territory. This ironic partnership is prompted as the media urges the two global leaders for answers on the speculated death of Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra-Jonas), Clarke’s ex-girlfriend, who leads a project fighting major terrorist groups.
The most entertaining part of this film is the dynamic between Derringer and Clarke and their contrasting backgrounds. Derringer, a celebrity elected into government for his fame, is an incompetent moron to the eyes of Clarke, a former member of the Special Air Service (SAS). To be honest, a duo that hates each other is probably signature to action comedies at this point.
Despite the film erring on the side of caution and giving us a variation of a duo we have seen in countless action comedies, it still doesn’t work. Admittedly, most of the plot is driven by Derringer while Clarke sticks around. Perhaps the appeal of watching this was supposed to be their relationship improving throughout the course of the film, but it just feels too shallow. Yes, shared battles and traumatic experiences bring people closer together, but it carries no emotion when it just features two straight lumberjacks conquering every obstacle that gets in their way.
Rooting for them is difficult, too. Saying this without spoiling anything is a tricky one, but even their culminating moment as a duo and the plan that brought them to victory was nothing special. No character growth or revelation was required to achieve it — just two men deciding to wing it and hoping it works out.
The plot twists in the second act deserve some credit though. They are interesting and reflect some recurring events in real-world politics, but not much character growth stems from these.
Of course, the appeal is meant to lie in its genre, but Heads of State fails to cook anything good. The jokes fail to land. The supposedly romantic scenes feel emotionless. All the action scenes are squished into its trailers as overcrowded montages, leaving nothing exciting for the actual film. There is just so much comedic potential in the pettiness of politics at this point, but again, the film wants to play it safe.
On his retirement tour, Cena announced that he is scheduled to retire from professional wrestling this December. His rationale was that he was past his prime in the ring and not just because he wanted to focus on his acting career. He did mention taking some measures to book more flexible acting roles though — such as growing his hair out and losing muscle — so it is quite disappointing that his role in this film, despite being the stronger half of the pair, is that it feels like any other character we have already seen him portray.
‘Heads of State’ is now streaming on Prime Video.
