Mayday is a lot of fun, which makes me a little sad. I would have gladly gone to the movie theater to watch this action comedy, and enjoyed myself even more laughing along with a hyped crowd. Alas, I had to chuckle at home. Not alone though, thanks to a buddy who laughed along the way with me.
We’re in 1987, and Boris Yeltsin has started to ease up on the US – Soviet Union Cold War. Navy Pilot Troy “Assassin” Kelly (Ryan Reynolds) has gotten the call: he’s gonna fly a covert mission into Russian air space. That mission goes terribly, and Kelly crash lands behind enemy lines in Soviet winter. He’d definitely be dead, except he falls near Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh): the biggest US fan eager to try his first McDonald’s hamburger.
We’ve seen movies like Mayday before. The movie’s overall success hinges on Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh being a great comedy duo. This is the ultra light version of Dumb and Dumber, with Reynolds being the comedy star and Branagh being the dramatic turned comedic wild card. Reynolds is the same here as he is in every non Deadpool movie: 2 out of every 5 jokes are funny, as he carries that smartass attitude across the proceedings. I was hoping Branagh would dial it up a little broader and bigger, but like the consummate British thespian he is, he grounds Nikolai to find the movie’s emotional beats which Reynolds is incapable of delivering. Together they rely on 1980s referencing back and forth to each other, with Branagh having fun with off kilter dark Russian sense of humor cutting to a Reynolds reaction shot or comment. Streamer approved.
If that were all, Mayday would be forgettable. But the real reason I wanted a theatrical release is John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the boys behind Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons. Those two were given all the beats of action comedies we’ve seen before, and put really fun little spins on them to make the action much more interesting than the “direct to streaming” seal would suggest. There’s a lot of reverse video game footage, where you’re staring into the face of Ryan Reynolds or Kenneth Branagh, as the carnage devolves around them; the plane ejection in particular makes you feel how harrowing that situation is because of this choice. There’s a train chase that uses tunnels in a way I haven’t seen before. An interrogation escape calls back to Daley’s Freaks and Geeks days. And the big finale is preposterous, but in all fun unique ways. There’s even a spy thriller escape that reminded me in some ways of the Matrix Lobby Shootout. This seems like high praise, but I promise Mayday would be in Red Notice territory were it not for Daley/Goldstein’s very impressive action comedy chops.
And that’s the big takeaway here. Were the studio comedy in a better place, I would be eagerly awaiting next year’s John Francis Daley/Jonathan Goldstein movie. Instead, I’ll keep an eye out for them on the streamers, fighting the good fight keeping movie comedies alive as best they can. Freaks and Geeks really is the gift that keeps on giving, hopefully for many years to come.