Heads of State (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
7 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

HEADS OF STATE (2025)

Featuring John Cena, Idris Elba, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Jack Quaid, Paddy Considine, Stephen Root, Carla Gugino, Sarah Niles, Richard Coyle, Clare Foster, Katrina Durden, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Sharlto Copley, Wade Briggs, Clare Foster, Robyn Pennington, Adrian Lukis, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Steven Cree, Huw Novelli, Aled llŷr Thomas, Arthur Lee and Peter Guiney.

Screenplay by Josh Appelbaum & André Nemec and Harrison Query.

Directed by Ilya Naishuller.

Distributed by Amazon MGM Studios. 113 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Less than three months ago, Prime Video offered up G20, a new action film in which the President of the United States had to nearly-single-handedly physically fight off international terrorists and save the leaders of some of the world’s largest countries.

Now, also on Prime Video, comes Heads of State, a new action film in which the President of the United States has to nearly-single-handedly physically fight off international terrorists and save the leaders of some of the world’s largest countries.

Hmmm….

Well, okay, in fairness to Heads of State, the world saving here is shared by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who falls into a bit of an odd-couple comic vibe with the President, so they can drop pithy jokes as they take down the bad guys and survive a series of bullets and explosions.

Now, I’ve got to say that G20 was not a very good movie, but it’s like fucking Citizen Kane compared to Heads of State, which is nearly shocking in its wrong-headedness and just plain badness.

G20 went with a little outside the box casting, making Viola Davis the first black, woman, kick-ass President. (I still think that could work, certainly better than what we have now…) The casting of John Cena as President here is a bit more central casting, and yet still spectacularly off base. (And this comes from someone who is in general a fan of Cena’s work as a comic actor.)

President Will Derringer is perhaps the most unqualified President imaginable – well at least he would have been in the pre-Trump era – a musclehead, cheesy Hollywood action star who rode the popularity of his Water Cobra films into the Oval Office. Now, in fairness, in comparison to another real-life media star who was able to somehow become President, Derringer actually seems to have good intentions, empathy and care about the people of the United States. He’s just in way, way over his head.

Having Idris Elba playing Prime Minister Sam Clarke certainly makes more sense. He has the gravitas of the office and seems to know what the hell he is doing. However as written, the character is so morose, huffy and off-putting that even Elba’s natural charm can only take you so far.

The two world leaders don’t like each other but are forced together for world diplomacy. As something of a photo op to shore up their reputations, PM Clarke agrees to hitch a ride on Air Force One to a NATO summit in Rome. However, above the skies of Belarus, the plane is attacked and shot down. The two leaders get the last two parachutes and survive, although the world believes they are dead.

They make it to a safe house in Poland, but that too is nearly instantly attacked. They realize there must be an inside man in the attacks, so the two have to make their way across the Communist bloc with little help, just an MI6 agent Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) – who is also believed dead from an earlier terrorist attack. (They literally just run into agent during one of their fire-fights, imagine that.) And of course, Bisset is the PM’s ex-girlfriend, and the one that got away in his life.

Heads of State tries to be many things at once – an oddball buddy comedy, a road trip, a romance, a political treatise, a high-octane action picture. It doesn’t really work in any of these aspects, although if anything the action sequences, while way over-the-top, work out best.

While Cena and Elba are both extremely compelling screen presences, both are regularly let down by the script. Other quite capable cast members who are given way too little to play with are Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Jack Quaid (as a CIA officer), Paddy Considine (as a Russian arms dealer???), Carla Gugino (as the Vice President) and Stephen Root (as a computer genius).

Perhaps the best way not to be let down by Heads of State is to just have nothing to do with it.

Dave Strohler