Heads of State review: Prime Video delivers yet another ‘turn your brain off’ thriller

Heads of State is yet another cobbled together streaming distraction that gets away with the bare minimum.

An underused cast, a plot that’s more holes than structure and recycled jokes guarantee it won’t stand the test of time, though there’s just enough sparkle to keep you from switching over to a rival platform.

After their infinitely more compelling rivalry in James Gunn’s 2021 antihero flick The Suicide Squad, John Cena trades DC for Washington as A-list actor-turned-President Will Derringer, who’s desperate to please the UK’s stalwart yet dwindling Prime Minister Sam Clarke (played by Idris Elba).

When a PR trip on Air Force One is targeted by terrorists, the unlikely duo are forced to put their political aspirations aside and go on the run, uncovering a global conspiracy that threatens to tear the USA and Great Britain’s shaky alliances apart.

Once the action kicks off, bolstered by the ever capable Priyanka Chopra Jonas as MI6 agent Noel Bisset, we’re in familiar buddy movie territory, albeit with ludicrously heightened stakes, that will certainly make for easy weekend viewing for Stateside streamers heading into the 4th of July holiday.

But, less than 24 hours after the film’s premiere, there’s almost nothing memorable about Heads of State that will make it the patriotic staple it so wishes to be, let alone anything to draw subscribers back for another viewing when the next Independence Day rolls around.

To its credit, much of the action is impressively staged, with a refreshing adherence to practical stunts and set pieces, at least in its opening act, and playful camerawork to ensure it stands out from lesser streaming pablum. The inaugural attack on Air Force One is zippy and visceral, and there’s a handful of hand-to-hand moments and shootouts later on that come at the perfect time to shake you awake.

Director Ilya Naishuller is certainly no slouch when it comes to action, having previously helmed the scrappier thrillers Hardcore Henry and Nobody – both flawed yet far superior demonstrations of his talents for all-out, unhinged violence.

Unfortunately, Heads of State is disappointingly sanitised, with just a handful of bone-crunching moments and some coarse yet uninspired dialogue that tantalisingly suggest a more brutal, grown-up cut is out there somewhere.

Once agent Noel catches up with Sam and Will it’s all helicopters and car chases and any semblance of grittiness is stripped away in favour of slow-motion and unconvincing CGI explosions to distract you from how little anything makes sense.

The cast is also woefully underused, thanks to both dialogue and plotting that’s been Frankensteined from hundreds of better films. The criticism that scripts are starting to feel written by AI is starting to get old, but never has it felt more appropriate.

Usually able to give even the most generic scripts some much-needed presence and charisma, Cena and Elba are both on autopilot here and you never get the sense they either dislike or like each other throughout their enemies-to-besties arc.

Aside from our two leads, Chopra Jonas, much like her turn in Prime Video’s disastrous spy thriller series Citadel, is compelling but gives the impression she thinks she signed up to a much better project. Meanwhile, Paddy Considine plays a generic Eastern European bad-guy with about as much energy as a fairground ride for kids and the great Carla Gugino sounds so bored as Will’s Vice President you can practically see her rolling her eyes between takes.

The highlight of the film is Jack Quaid’s maniacal CIA station agent Marty Comer, who shows up halfway through to help Sam and Will out of a tight spot when they’re forced to hole up in a Warsaw safe house. His infectious energy sadly only sticks around for a few minutes – just long enough to make you wish you were watching one of the better seasons of The Boys – but there’s an inventiveness and glee in his action beats that were sorely missing from the rest of the plodding run time.

It all culminates in a fun yet ridiculous chase sequence before tying up the nonsensical political plot – which you’ll have probably already forgotten despite swathes of garbled exposition – with some “all in this together”, “put our differences aside” posturing that feels almost dangerously naïve considering, well, everything about the 2020s so far.

Less offensively bland than other streaming slop, and definitely not Prime Video’s worst offender – do we all remember the Die Hard knock-off with a remarkably similar premise starring Viola Davis from just two months ago? Didn’t think so – Heads of State is an action film that demands a switched-off brain and zero expectations. The cast deserves better and, frankly, so do we.

Heads of State is available to stream on Prime Video.