“Heads of State,” the latest offering from Bluetooth-speaker-delivery-service-turned-movie-studio Amazon Prime, delivers an interesting, if overcomplex, premise: when a group of international operatives hack into a vital U.S. government computer program to manipulate world leaders into disbanding NATO and crash Air Force One with the President and U.K. Prime Minister onboard, the ideologically opposed heads of state (like the title) must find their way back to NATO headquarters to restore the alliance and take down the operatives to restore balance and overcome their differences.
It’s kind of a lot.
Buried within this movie is a fascinating political thriller about a hacker who takes out the President and infiltrates the U.S. government, and also a great buddy comedy where the President and Prime Minister get stranded and have to make it back, despite their differences. There’s probably a way to do both, but this isn’t it.
Some moments do get tense, and the action is creatively designed and well-directed, but the stakes never feel personal enough to elevate it to the next level. The film also can’t seem to decide if the stakes are low or high. They’re trying to mix the two— but instead, the movie bounces back and forth, causing a bit of whiplash.
It doesn’t help that the events of the film feel largely arbitrary and very predictable, sometimes several scenes before a reveal.
The film does have some unique ideas— the opening sequence featured a TV camera with a gun inside, which was clever, and its coining of the phrase “Commanders-in-Beef” was gold— but they’re few and far between.
None of that really matters, though. At the end of the day, “Heads of State” is just a vehicle for stars John Cena and Idris Elba. Luckily, they both give great performances. John Cena, playing the president, is very likable and brings a sincerity to the overly-confident-idiot trope, and Idris Elba plays the Prime Minister as smart but a bit cynical— both actors are much better than this movie, but they commit enough to make it work. Their dynamic together is good, as well. Cena’s sarcasm is sharp, and Elba’s dryer humor is a nice grounder to it. Specifically, Cena’s line, “Don’t concern yourself with how another man breathes. Boundaries, guy,” was a highlight.
All of that is why the final act, when the movie gives up on being a coherent work to instead focus on absurd comedy and high-stakes action, is the best part of it. In particular, there was a chase scene that managed to be both laugh-out-loud funny and edge-of-your-seat gripping.
The film’s comedy sometimes borders on the cartoonish and the action is always at a 10, but the beating heart throughline keeps it from getting exhausting.
In a stand-out scene, Cena’s character, an action film star before becoming the president, shared the reason he got into politics to begin with.
“There are awesome people everywhere. But the world is so… fractured,” he said. “So, I figured if I could use my celebrity, even just for a little bit, to bring people together, wouldn’t that be a good thing?”
When it allows itself to be, it’s a film based on pure entertainment, on optimism.
Plus, the post-credits scene seemed to set up a potential sequel, which would be welcome.
Ultimately, “Heads of State” isn’t a very unique film, but it’s an enjoyable and endearing watch— and, sometimes, that’s enough.
“Heads of State” is available on Amazon Prime.
