What’s It About

When a U.S. Navy pilot on a top-secret mission during the Cold War gets trapped behind enemy lines, his only chance at survival is to form an alliance with an eccentric ex-KGB agent.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh are basically what keep this movie from being boring. Without them, it would’ve been a pretty dull watch. It’s not bad, just not very memorable. It’s actually better than most streaming shows with bigger celebrities. The movie tries to be an 80s throwback, but just playing 80s music doesn’t make something feel like the 80s. They mess up the whole idea by putting in modern stuff like a lesbian daughter and military leaders who wouldn’t have been in those positions back in the 80s. But there’s also some serious moments with quirky humor that actually work. The main actors have great chemistry together. Reynolds is funny while keeping a straight face, and the story is kind of satirical without trying too hard. So, the action starts, it’s really exciting. If you want a straight comedy, this isn’t it. But if you like different genres mixed together, you’ll enjoy it. Movies today are getting harder to tell apart from real blockbusters because of AI and all the content being made. A few years ago, “MayDay” would have played in theaters and people would have watched it again on TV. Now it comes out on Apple TV as the #1 movie but will probably be forgotten by next week. That’s too bad because it’s actually pretty good. Reynolds plays a Navy pilot who gets shot down over Russia during the Cold War. Branagh plays an ex-KGB agent who rescues him. This is the fourth movie directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, and they did a good job with this action comedy. The movie looks really good, like it should be seen in a theater instead of just on streaming. Reynolds plays Troy Kelly, who’s kind of like Tom Cruise’s character in “Top Gun” but nicer. When he breaks rules, it’s to help another pilot land safely on their aircraft carrier. This helps him after he gets shot down over Russia while flying a spy plane. He lands near Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh), a retired KGB agent who loves America so much he has a “Top Gun” poster on his wall. Troy is stranded more than 2,000 miles from the nearest border, with almost no chance of being rescued. A mean KGB agent named Alexander Volkov is trying to catch him. Nikolai promises to help Troy get to safety if Troy helps him and his daughter Anna get asylum in the U.S. The problem is that Troy was on a secret mission, so it will be hard to get American leaders to even admit he exists. With Volkov and his army chasing them, Troy and Nikolai have to work together to reach the American consulate in Moscow before they get caught or killed. The movie looks amazing, especially considering some shots would be impossible to film in real life. The camera swoops under an SR-71 Blackbird as it moves on the ground, which looks incredible. The dogfights and flying scenes look really convincing. The directors and cinematographer Barry Peterson make the action exciting and beautiful, with the aircraft moving across amazing landscapes. The politics in the movie are pretty simple, basically saying “we’re not so different, you and I” between America and Russia. The lessons are more about empathy and not judging people by their appearance than about real 1980s international relations. This works well for the stars, with Reynolds holding back his usual wisecracking jokes and Branagh not using the scary Russian accents he’s used in other movies. Reynolds plays Troy as clean-cut and dedicated, the opposite of his Deadpool character. Branagh, who’s 65, seems determined to prove he can keep up with younger actors, doing fight scenes that leave his opponents beaten up on the floor. Marcin Dorociński, who plays Volkov, makes his KGB character smarter and more interesting than the usual 80s movie bad guy. Maria Bakalova, who plays Anna, shows again that she can be good even in a small role. The movie changes smoothly from a Cold War version of “Misery” (with Branagh as the American military fan and Reynolds as the person he admires) to a bigger version of “Stripes” (with a huge missile truck driving through Moscow). The directors know when to go big and when not to. Despite all the explosions, one of the best scenes happens in a wine room with a Russian official, his family, and his mistress who doesn’t want to be discovered anymore than Troy and Nikolai do. The action is better than the comedy in this movie. The camera keeps moving through fights, escapes, and car chases, and the editing keeps the 111-minute movie from feeling too long. There are lots of exciting scenes, from a bar fight to a train chase to an apartment escape, and finally a missile chase that takes up the whole ending. A scene where they hide in a closet at a rich Russian’s house is really entertaining, with the directors creating a lot of comic tension. I also liked the driving montage with Troy and Nikolai crossing the changing Soviet landscape while Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” plays. Even though Reynolds and Branagh are the main stars, Marcin Dorociński has the most interesting role as a KGB agent who truly believes the Soviet Union has been hurt by Gorbachev’s reforms. He plays this belief with such control that Volkov never seems like a typical Russian bad guy, which makes his moments of charm even more unsettling. The political ideas are where “MayDay” starts having problems. Troy’s strong belief in American greatness gets challenged when he has to depend on Nikolai to survive, while Nikolai’s dream of America gets ruined by the reality of trying to get himself and his daughter out of the Soviet Union. The movie wants to challenge the old Cold War thinking, but it’s much braver when making fun of the Soviets than when looking at the American system that Troy has been taught to worship. Soviet Russia is filled with bad guys and obstacles, while the movie’s criticism of American capitalism doesn’t get explored as much. Maria Bakalova’s Anna shows this problem well. As Nikolai’s queer daughter, she should be the one who makes him question his perfect vision of America and face the family he’s endangered and the life he’s leaving behind. But the writing mostly treats her like something Nikolai wants to bring across the border, giving Bakalova almost nothing good to work with. David Morse doesn’t do any better as Troy’s father, a former shipyard worker sick from asbestos exposure, whose illness briefly challenges the movie’s patriotic ideas by showing how American institutions can hurt their own people. This could have been a good counterpoint to Troy’s anti-Soviet views, but neither character gets enough attention from the writers. Still, “MayDay” is made too well to leave you completely cold. The directors know that nostalgia works best when it has something real to hold onto, which is why the movie’s old technology and fun action movie style have more life than its attempts at political commentary. Reynolds does what he was hired to do, but Branagh is the one who gives the movie an unexpectedly strong center. “MayDay” doesn’t quite escape the shadow of the pop culture it admires, and its criticism of American myths is much weaker than its enjoyment of Soviet stereotypes. But there’s enough skill, comic timing, and real love for the genre here to make the nostalgia feel like a fun throwback.

OUR RATING – A COLD WAR 7