Mayday

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Kenneth Branagh, Marcin Dorocinski, David Morse, Maria Bakalova, Wendy Crewson

Director: John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein

While flying over Russia on a top secret surveillance mission, Navy pilot Troy Kelly (Reynolds) is shot down behind enemy lines. Kelly is rescued from the crash by former KGB operative Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh) and much to his surprise, Ustinov is not only a fan of the movie Top Gun but of American culture itself. Ustinov wants to help Kelly safely reach his embassy so that he and his daughter Anna (Bakalova) can have asylum in America. Unfortunately, the duo find themselves on the run after KGB agent Volkov (Dorocinski) learns about the crash. What follows is a race across Russia as Troy and Nikolai try to evade capture on their way to safety.

I didn't have Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh being a winning action comedy duo on my 2026 bingo card but here we are! Much like with Mike and Nick & Nick & Alice, I am very disappointed that this didn't get a theatrical release and instead can only be seen streaming. This would have rocked on the big screen!

This movie is a lot of fun, delivering on both the action and the laughs. This shouldn't be a surprise coming from the writing/directing duo of John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein. Game Night is a modern classic and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was way better than it had any right to be. Both films were filmed through a unique lens (I still don't understand how they got some of the shots in Game Night that they did) and successfully combined action, humor, and heart. This follows a similar blueprint, however, I'd classify this as more of an action film than a comedy. Yes, Reynolds makes his quips, but most of the humor is situational rather than relying on cheap one liners.

Through the course of the movie, both characters learn they have been fed lies about each other's cultures and come to realize they can be the ones to help change those opinions. This creates an interesting dynamic with the characters and helps give the movie its heart. These moments come out during quieter moments in the film, as well as during the action.

The action is quite good too. While it does have a couple moments of obvious green screen, the movie is littered with several memorable action beats throughout. Branagh in particular gets to show off in numerous hand to hand action scenes. A final action beat involving the duo driving a truck with a nuke on the back that leads into a weightless fight aboard an airplane is a great climax to the film. While nothing tops the mansion chase with the Faberge egg in Game NIght, Daley & Goldstein prove to be an exciting voice in action cinema.

Reynolds and Branagh have incredible chemistry. Like I said above, I didn't have this pairing working this well on my bingo card. Reynolds keeps Troy grounded and from becoming unlikable, which his characters can sometimes tend to veer into. Branagh is having the time of his life. Not only does he get to play action hero, he gets to play the lead! It's been a while since that has truly been the case, mostly being relegated to playing villains. He's still Russian in this one, but he's 100% a good guy. While she is barely in it, Maria Bakalova has a great role as his daughter. She shows a lot of range in her limited screen time and shows she doesn't need to play an over the top character to make an impact or be memorable.

Yes, we have seen buddy action comedies before and this doesn't reinvent the wheel, but the unique Cold War setting and fantastic chemistry between the leads helps elevate this film into a must see.

Grade: B+

Mayday is available to stream on AppleTV