Mayday
After U.S. Navy pilot Lieutenant Troy "Assassin" Kelly (Ryan Reynolds) pulls off a dangerous move to release a Captain Anderson's (Donald Sales)tailhook, he's rewarded with a risky surveillance assignment during the Cold War. But when his SR-71 Blackbird spy plane is shot down behind Russian enemy lines and he's injured after ejecting, he'll find himself paired with an unlikely savior, American-obsessed ex-KGB agent Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh) in "Mayday."
Laura's Review: B-
"Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" writer/director/producers John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein return with a Cold War buddy movie that feels like it was either under or overcooked during rewrites and in the editing bay. We can almost see a film which deserved a theatrical release, but there are one too many flaws in the script and Branagh and Reynolds are acting on entirely different levels. Still, the movie has some beautifully orchestrated action sequences and enough humor and heart to make it worthwhile.
The film begins with that mid-air stunt as Kelly banters with Anderson about Cabbage Patch dolls in a failed attempt at some Tarantino-esque dialogue amid an otherwise excitingly choreographed scene. His off-kilter sense of humor works better when he visits his dad (David Morse, "The Green Mile") in a retirement home, the two obviously quite close. Troy is dubbed 'trunk trash' by the pilot (Louis Cancelmi, TV's 'Billions') of that SR-71, but his advice is proven right when the pilot is shot and the plane disabled. Troy's ejection from the spy plane which flies at 80,000 feet is another spectacularly shot and edited sequence, both funny and heart-stopping.
Then we get to the heart of the film, Troy awakening in a cozy cabin, a fire casting a golden glow over such Americana as "Top Gun" posters, an I Heart NY bumper sticker and rendering of Mount Rushmore. He's tied to his bed, to keep him from moving during surgery explains Nikolai 'call me Nick' Ustinov, the ex-KGB agent who wants nothing more than to emigrate to the U.S. and advises Troy to sit tight with him until the Cold War ends. Although they are in the middle of nowhere and 2,000 km from the border to Finland, Troy decides to escape, stealing Nick's truck, then stopping at a local bar for one of the first forehand-slapping moments in the film. Are Navy aces recruited for spy missions this naive?
Needless to say, Troy is saved by Nick in one of the first displays of his awesome physical prowess (great stunt work), but his actions have drawn the attention of the KGB's Viktor (Alex Ozerov-Meyer, TV's 'The Americans') whose team was already trying to locate the Navy pilot they believe survived. Next big eye-roll? He enters Viktor's cabin, insists on checking out his root cellar, but fails to notice there are two recently used glasses on his table, even after he's offered a drink. Are KGB agents this oblivious? (The reveal of where Troy has actually been hidden is a great visual gag though, another example of how this movie keeps rising and falling then rising again.)
And so now Nick agrees they must leave. They plot to steal an untraceable phone from a big wig's dacha which leads to some effective hiding-in-the-closet slapstick and after Troy is informed a team cannot rescue him as he was never officially in the country, he is directed to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Troy promises Nick he will get him asylum and when Nick says he cannot leave Russia without his estranged daughter Anna (Maria Bakalova, "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm," "The Apprentice"), Troy agrees to get her as well. After an expected yet poorly mapped out obstacle with another unbelievable resolution, "Mayday" goes out with both a moving reconciliation and an eventual escape that is a triple knockout.
But there are so many little nagging details, like Reynolds' oddly timed comments voiced over cutaways that feel like bandaids for missing or unusable footage in addition to the more obvious flaws that keep "Mayday" from reaching the peak it could have. That's frustrating when so many other things in the film work, like Branagh's understated, perfectly timed performance (he's got the Russian accent down after his villainous turn in "Tenet" and a Jack Ryan movie) and laugh out loud action sequences. But so many films that get relegated directly to streaming are mediocre at best and "Mayday" has much more to offer than that, making it a good bet for an evening with Apple TV.
Robin's Review: B
"Mayday" will begin streaming on Apple TV on Friday, 9/4/26.
