Mayday
Dustin Chase
“Top Gun” is a prerequisite for “Mayday”. Rare for a new film to be written around a retro classic, and its effect on the cinema zeitgeist. In the case of Apple+ new film “Mayday”, the directors of “Game Night” and “Vacation” look to the past to create something new. This action-buddy-comedy features a former KGB agent, obsessed with American culture, especially Tom Cruise and “Top Gun”. While the film is rarely funny or even action packed, it’s compelling to see just how long it can ride the nostalgia wave and 80’s references. While Ryan Reynolds (“Deadpool”) continues to hit that one note and play his same acting card, it’s Oscar winner Kenneth Branagh (“Oppenheimer”) who affords the film some originality.
When Lieutenant Troy ‘Assassin’ Kelly (Reynolds) crashes into enemy territory on a secret spy mission, the last thing he expected is rescue from a former KGB officer consumed with all things America. A year after the release of the box office hit “Top Gun”, Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh) can’t believe his eyes when a real-life Air Force pilot drops out of the sky and on his doorstep.
“While Ryan Reynolds continues to hit that one note and play his same acting card, it’s Oscar winner Kenneth Branagh who affords the film some originality.”
When trust is finally established, the two unlikely comrades’ risk both of their lives headed for the American embassy as the Cold War rages between the two countries. Ustinov wants a better life, Kelly wants back in the air, but what both men discover is that neither of their countries are perfect.
As buddy films go, “Mayday” is serviceable. Reynolds and Branagh’s acting careers and styles couldn’t be more different, which work for the characters. Reynold’s employs Wade Wilson’s same familiar sarcasm which limits his range. Branagh’s Nikolai Ustinov, “Grizzly Adams,” must have been based on Zach Galifianakis, as the similarities are striking and distracting. Yet it’s Branagh who keeps “Mayday” watchable. As the film pivots from sarcasm to small scale chase sequences, it’s the comradery that suffers. Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova (“Borat”) shows up as Ustinov’s estranged daughter midway through the film. She is written more as character depth for Ustinov than her own separate entity.
The script flirts with the theme of “good people” on enemy territory, and visa-versa, tactfully shying away from anything political. “Turns out my country isn’t perfect,” Kelly says at one point. “Mayday” isn’t radical, groundbreaking or even all together entertaining. It mostly just plays out like you expect, ending with little more than a whimper. It’s the kind of film you forget as soon as credits role.
Final Thought
Billed as an action comedy, “Mayday” is scarce on both.