'Mayday' review: Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh are caught in a Cold War of wits and brawn

Courtesy of Apple TV+

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A silly but entertaining buddy comedy that pairs a game Kenneth Branagh as a former KGB agent obsessed with Western culture, especially “Top Gun,” McDonald’s and Bruce Springsteen, with Ryan Reynolds in the same smart-aleck mode he has built an entire career around, “Mayday” transports the two stars back to 1987, when Cold War tensions between the United States and Soviet Union were still running high. There is something oddly timely about John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein dabbling in this particular brand of geopolitical comedy given the current relationship between Russia and the West, but the filmmakers largely keep things light, finding plenty of charm in watching Reynolds and Branagh work off one another. Branagh, in particular, is having an absolute blast, even showing off some serious muscle during a handful of close-quarters combat sequences that suggest he could have a late-career action run in him if Liam Neeson ever decides to surrender the throne.

Reynolds plays Troy Kelly, a hotshot Navy pilot with the callsign “Assassin,” the origins of which provide one of the movie’s better running jokes, who has a habit of going rogue and flying by the seat of his pants. When a top-secret mission goes sideways and his plane is shot down deep in snowy Soviet territory, Troy finds an unlikely ally in Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh), a former KGB operative who has developed an almost childlike fascination with American culture. Naturally, Nikolai owns a bootleg copy of “Top Gun” that he watches on repeat and suggests the two of them simply keep watching until the Cold War blows over.

That plan doesn’t last long. When hardened Soviet security operative Volkov (Marcin Dorociński) arrives on Nikolai’s doorstep looking for the downed American pilot, Troy and Nikolai make a break for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, kicking their “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”-style journey into gear. Daley and Goldstein, the filmmaking duo behind the woefully underrated “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” understand that the real appeal isn’t the destination so much as the odd-couple pairing getting them there. They relish the opportunity to poke fun at both Soviet perceptions of America and the ridiculous excess of Western culture, while finding ample time to work in some choice needle drops from the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen.

“Mayday” occasionally reaches for more substance than its goofy buddy-comedy framework can comfortably support. A half-baked queer storyline involving Nikolai’s daughter Anna (Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova) feels more like a narrative device than a fully developed subplot, while the final act attempts to make a broader statement about separating ordinary people from the governments that supposedly represent them. The sentiment that decency can transcend borders is hardly revolutionary, and its presentation can feel simplistic considering the considerably more complicated geopolitical reality surrounding the film’s release. Still, there is something earnest underneath all the Cold War caricatures, with Daley and Goldstein ultimately more interested in finding common ground between their characters than scoring any particularly pointed political observations.

Thankfully, none of that weighs down the movie for long because Reynolds and Branagh have surprisingly terrific chemistry. Reynolds is firmly operating within his established wheelhouse, tossing off sarcastic remarks with the cadence audiences have come to expect, but Branagh proves to be the ideal counterweight. His committed eccentricity gives Reynolds something different to bounce against, and the pair develop an easy, wacky rhythm that carries “Mayday” whenever its plotting starts to thin out. It may not have much on its mind beyond friendship, cultural differences and the universal appeal of “Top Gun,” but as a breezy Cold War buddy comedy, it goes down remarkably smooth.

Grade: B

MAYDAY streams on Apple TV Friday, September 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om5Un9X720M