An Enjoyable one-time watch
Summary
Mayday is an entertaining throwback to culture clash comedies of the 80’s and has some energetic set-pieces as well as a scene stealing turn from Kenneth Branagh. Ryan Reynolds is his usual self playing a wise cracking smart ass (big stretch) and he really needs to try doing something different as we’ve seen this many times before.
Plot: Lieutenant Troy Brennan’s reconnaissance mission over Soviet territory goes awry, forcing him to crash-land and survive in Russian wilderness while evading capture or rescue.
Review: I have a day off today, so I thought I would catch up with Mayday, the new action comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh. It’s a throwback to the kind of culture clash comedies we got the 80s while also being a sort of love letter to that era.
We get lots of Bruce Springsteen songs and references to Top Gun which makes sense as Reynolds is playing a Navy Pilot called Troy Brennen. While on a recon mission he is shot down and crashes behind enemy lines but is rescued by Nikolai Ustinov (a scene stealing Kenneth Branagh). Nikolai is a big fan of America and sees it as a shining light while Troy has been taught that Russia is pure evil. Both realise that neither country is perfect but work together to get Troy back to safety.
Mayday is pretty entertaining for a streaming movie which means I enjoyed it for the one and only time I will ever watch it and by next week I will have forgotten it exists. Ryan Reynolds plays the same Deadpool schtick which is really tiresome and I feel like he just doesn’t try anymore. Thankfully, Kenneth Branagh is clearly having a ball as the good natured, but deadly Nikolai and he gets the best fight scenes.
The highlight is obviously the bar fight early in the movie, but the final fight on the plane is cool and I also enjoyed the car/missile carrier chase. That elevated the movie as there isn’t much else about it that’s memorable as the script doesn’t have too many quotable one-liners. I miss those in action movies. This also could have done with a few more fight scenes as it did feel a little long and at times it did drag a little.
If this movie even had a score it wasn’t remotely noteworthy as I only remember hearing Springsteen songs.
Overall, Mayday is an entertaining if unremarkable watch elevated by Kenneth Branagh and some fun action scenes. Ryan Reynolds is the same as he always, but still has a few funny lines. There are worse ways to spend an evening.