Heads of State: Average Yet Hilarious Action

For as much as our neighbors in Britain are partial to labeling America as "just another one of our discontented exes," deep down, they're still salty that our farmers beat their finest in a war to set the groundwork for what would eventually become the most influential country in the modern world. I'm personally of the opinion that we should replicate Benjamin Franklin's rumored electrical device that could, with one shock, overturn the entire island of Great Britain. So I joke, but I've nonetheless observed a friendly rivalry cropping up between the two countries as I've gotten older. I personally love Great Britain. I may not always like what Great Britain does, but while I much prefer my hollow-point ammunition to lukewarm and under-sweet tea, I legitimately have a lot of respect for our sometimes-snooty neighbor, and like to poke a little fun at our cultural proxy war now and then. Enter Heads of State, where President Will Derringer (John Cena) and Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) don't exactly get along with each other, either. However, when Air Force One is shot down over Belarus by some globally active conspirators - with the two leaders being the only survivors - petty cultural insults won't cut it anymore. They'll have to work together if they want to successfully run the gauntlet of well-organized terrorism with catastrophic goals in mind, treason at the highest levels of government, and ripe red tomatoes.

Even if Heads of State is a safe action movie, nowhere near the cinematic equivalent of hear me out, it can be colorful when it wants to. Instead of being greeted by brown deserts, green uniforms, or black-as-night secrecy, I was hit right in the face by a bright red tomato, metaphorically speaking. The La Tomatina festival is a very real event, and for those of you out of the loop, it's a massive food fight held every year in Spain that features - you guessed it - tomatoes as the weapon of choice. Throwing someone like me right into the middle of something like this when I was expecting some military compound in Russia is an unusual hook that makes only the biggest of impressions, creating an unusually bubbly mood for an action movie that lends a lighthearted nature to the affair. Heads of State is interested in being fun; very often, that's just what it happens to be.

Though safe, the casting of this movie shows flashes of brilliance more than occasionally. John Cena and Idris Elba are brilliant together as two world leaders who bicker like kids left unsupervised for too long. Their chemistry is both riotous and magnetic, an endless stream of anxious one-liners and hilarious visual gags. The dialogue of Heads of State is just as funny, a drink-from-the-fire-hose stream of legitimately good jokes laid over the top of perfectly ridiculous scenarios that never seem to grow tiresome no matter how silly they get. In some ways, I'm thankful for the magnetism of both our male leads and their lines, yet in others, I'm disappointed that they're given such an average story to work their charms on.

The tropes of Heads of State are painfully forgettable. Narratively, it's an action movie like any other, a fun and wild yet impotent multinational romp run by presidents and prime ministers instead of soldiers and spies. It's not much more, nor does it try to be. It plays the same action-packed tune we've heard a million times over without enough variation to matter much at all, and its lack of creativity can be stunning. I'd be so harsh as to say that you've already seen Heads of State, but you don't know it yet. To all my ladies out there, it reminds me of the one hot and popular guy in school - charming on the outside, but empty and void in the center. Still, this movie won't demand much of you. Like popular people are prone to do, it's not asking for a full commitment, and if you don't want to think much about your films, by all means, give this one your time, even if it may not always command your attention, too.

Heads of State is an average action romp elevated by some hilarious comedy and the duo of John Cena and Idris Elba, both of whom take this movie way further than its average-as-can-be premise deserves to go. It's as safe a movie as one could make, but its performances truly make the status quo a lot of fun, for once. I won't be rushing to watch it again any time soon, but if you have a soft spot for stereotypical action movies and a lot of free time, you won't want to miss this. Heads of State is virtually unencumbered by any manner of weight, a pure well of popcorn-flavored fun that floats on the clouds of irreverence. Of course, being a movie critic, I wish it were in some ways more ambitious than it turned out to be. Still, in others, I'm happy it has more in common with an overly-caffeinated tweenager than it does an old, philosophical man.

And by all means, is Benjamin Franklin's device still at large, hidden in some old, musty basement?

Heads of State - 7/10

Philippians 2:12-16