Heads of State
Idris Elba and John Cena bicker and bash up baddies in a ludicrous, stunt-stuffed action-comedy.
State of affairs: John Cena and Idris Elba embattled in Belarus
Photo courtesy of Amazon Prime.
From Sir Robert Walpole to Sir Keir Starmer, Britain’s prime ministers have boasted some pretty striking monickers. But Sam Clarke? That’s Clarke, Sam Clarke, as played by Idris Elba as a bullet-headed, pun-despising first minister who served in the British army and took on three jobs to pay his way through Cambridge. Now, under his watch, the UK is experiencing record unemployment, a Polish refugee crisis and, to add insult to injury, a classified intelligence operation in Spain that has just backfired terribly, resulting in the death of seven MI6 and CIA agents.
On the other side of the Atlantic there’s Will Derringer (John Cena), a new president in the White House, a former action movie star with a G.I. Joe jawline, a doting wife and daughter and a landslide victory of 83 million votes. Under his wing, the US has never seemed so popular and he’s now teaming up with Clarke, Sam Clarke, to establish a new clean energy initiative to make the world a more environmentally safe place.
Much of the success (or failure) of Heads of State rests on the chemistry between Elba and Cena, who do look like they’re having a good time. They can certainly handle themselves when the Russians come a’ calling, the latter bent on fracturing the special relationship between the US, the UK and other nations of Nato. Dubbed the “commanders in beef,” the gym-ready Derringer and army-trained Clarke have to show a new side to their leadership skills as a posse of assassins chase their tails across Europe. The last time the first minister and Commander in Chief were picked on by terrorists – in the Prime Video release G20 – the UK minister didn’t come off too well. Here, the heads of state are more evenly matched (even though Clarke is not exactly a head of state), while his street cred makes him a tougher opponent than the Hollywood man of muscle.
The Moscow-born director Ilya Naishuller previously made hay with the wildly entertaining Nobody (starring Bob Odenkirk) and he still exhibits an enormous visual wit and energy with this ludicrous fluff. He directs the whole thing as if the action-comedy had just been invented, as if dyed-blonde female assassins and broken-nosed, bullet-proof Russian goons were new to the table. From the opening bloodbath in the tomato-splashed streets of (the) La Tomatina festival in Buñol, Spain, set to the Gipsy Kings’ rendition of ‘Volare’ (the unofficial anthem of all things Mediterranean), the clichés spill out of the closet with unabashed glee.
This is the sort of action-comedy in which reality seldom gets a look-in, where the punches sound like explosions and every window is begging to be shattered like seafoam toffee. There’s slow-motion, a raft of all-too-familiar pop standards (Bonnie Tyler's ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart', The Archies' ‘Sugar Sugar’) and a shot of the British capital accompanied with the caption ‘London, England.’ However, the action scenes do pack quite a punch, even up to 007 standards, and as a can-do female accomplice, Priyanka Chopra Jonas is good value, as is Jack Quaid in a neat cameo with more than his fair share of the best lines (regarding a breakdown in the Special Relationship: “I’m talking some real Monica and Rachel season two shit here!”). While overly familiar, Heads of State could have been a good deal less enjoyable.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Idris Elba, John Cena, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Carla Gugino, Jack Quaid, Stephen Root, Paddy Considine, Sarah Niles, Richard Coyle, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Katrina Durden, Wade Briggs, Clare Foster, Robyn Pennington, Adrian Lukis, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Sharlto Copley, Ilya Naishuller.
Dir Ilya Naishuller, Pro Peter Safran and John Rickard, Ex Pro John Cena and Idris Elba, Screenplay Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Harrison Query, Ph Ben Davis, Pro Des Niall Moroney, Ed Tom Harrison-Read, Music Steven Price, Costumes Jany Temime, Sound George Riley and Jimmy Boyle.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/The Safran Company/Potboiler/Big Indie Pictures-Amazon Prime.
116 mins. USA. 2025. UK and US Rel: 2 July 2025. Cert. 12.
