Movie Review: Heads Of State (2025)

Genre: Action Comedy  

Director: Ilya Naishuller  

Starring: Idris Elba, John Cena, Priyanka Chopra, Carla Gugino, Jack Quaid, Stephen Root, Paddy Considine  

Running Time: 113 minutes  

Synopsis: Although they don't like each other, US President Will Derringer (John Cena) and UK Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) are together on-board Air Force One when the plane is attacked by agents working for fugitive arms dealer Gradov (Paddy Considine). Derringer and Clarke parachute into Belarus and make their way to a safe house in Poland, where they receive help from CIA Agent Marty Comer (Jack Quaid) and MI6 Agent Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra). Bisset has to escort Derringer and Clarke to Trieste, Italy, where Gradov and his accomplices are orchestrating the collapse of NATO.

What Works Well: Following on the heels of the similarly-themed but much worse G20, Heads Of State succeeds by celebrating the absurdity of its premise. The tension between the two protagonists establishes classic buddy movie dynamics: Derringer is a Schwarzenegger-type action movie star turned politician, Clarke is an idealistic social justice warrior actually believing he's in politics to help people. It takes a while for them to overcome their differences, but of course they both end up kicking butt, wielding weapons, and blowing away bad guys. The special effects are above-average, the next well-staged action set-piece is never more than 10 minutes away, and the trio of Priyanka Chopra, Jack Quaid, and Paddy Considine add memorable support.

What Does Not Work As Well: The evil mastermind is eyerollingly predictable (as the script itself acknowledges), and the  hold-NATO-together imperative is never treated as anything other than superficial politicizing.

Key Quote:

Derringer: Dear, God!

Clarke: I think He's had the day off.

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Movie Review: Blockers (2018)

A high school sex comedy, Blockers adopts a girls' perspective on runaway hormones as graduation approaches. But the film cannot escape the usual tired coarse humour associated with the worst of the genre.

Teenaged girls Julie (Kathryn Newton), Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Sam (Gideon Adlon) have been friends since the first day of elementary school. Julie's mom Lisa (Leslie Mann), Kayla dad Mitchell (John Cena) and Sam's carefree father Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) have equally maintained a years-long friendship. Now the girls are approaching high school graduation and they make a pact to all have their first sexual experience on prom night.

Julie is close to boyfriend Austin (Graham Phillips), the athletically-inclined Kayla randomly chooses her chemistry lab partner Connor (Miles Robbins) as her date and potential sex partner, while Sam is close to confirming that she is gay and has a crush on Angelica (Ramona Young), but anyway sets her sights on Chad (Jimmy Bellinger) as a potential sex partner.

Parents Lisa, Mitchell and Sam uncover the sex pact as soon their daughters depart for the big night, and frantically take off in pursuit to block the girls from losing their virginity, but catching up with the enthusiastic and determined graduates will not be easy.

Directed by Kay Cannon, written by Brian and Jim Kehoe, and co-produced by Seth Rogen, Blockers adds the image of a prancing cock on top of the title on most of its promotional material. And the title both stated and implied is unfortunately an accurate reflection of the content: the film is more about the parents attempting to block the fun than the girls who just want to have fun.

The teens are the relatively more rational characters, but most of the film is occupied with Lisa, Mitchell and Hunter bickering and fretting as they throw themselves into the impossible task of keeping up with the young and horny. Some good laughs are generated by the pursuit, but the film aims really low: every bodily fluid, body part and orifice gets its on-screen moment.

Countering the pervasive and prolonged blandness of beer poured down the wrong end and parents playing sex games is a good representation of ethnic and sexual identity diversity. The perspective of young women pursuing sexual adventurism is refreshing, and despite an overall obtuse and awkward tone, the film has plenty to say about the different standard young women are held to when they wish to express themselves sexually.

The eternal chasm between generations is exposed, with seemingly cool parents caught short by their offspring transforming into adults. In Blockers the kids are alright, the adults maybe not so much.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.