You know the exact formula by heart. Take one sarcastic American movie star, drop him into hostile foreign territory, and watch him wisecrack his way through an impossible escape. It's a blueprint Hollywood has recycled for decades. Yet, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley's Apple TV action-comedy Mayday manages to avoid total creative bankruptcy. Why? Because Kenneth Branagh decided to show up and perform like his life depended on it.
If you are wondering whether Mayday is worth your streaming time, let's cut right to the chase. It is a breezy, 111-minute throwback to 1980s buddy-cop dynamics. It won't win Oscars, but it won't make you throw your remote at the TV either.
The story drops us into 1987 right at the tail end of the Cold War. Ryan Reynolds plays Lieutenant Troy "Assassin" Kelly, a cocky U.S. Navy pilot flying a secret mission over the Soviet Union. Naturally, things go wrong. His plane gets shot down, and he wakes up tied to a bed in a remote Siberian cabin. His captor isn't a mindless grunt. He is Nikolai Ustinov, a retired KGB operative turned bearded forest hermit played with utter glee by Branagh.
Here is where the movie gets interesting. Nikolai doesn't want to torture the American pilot. He wants to talk about Top Gun, Bruce Springsteen, and how much he desperately wants to try a McDonald's Big Mac. Branagh plays this obsession with a grounded, joyous enthusiasm that completely disarms the viewer. He views American pop culture the way medieval pilgrims viewed holy relics.
Meanwhile, Reynolds is doing the standard Ryan Reynolds routine. You get the fast-talking, smarmy, slightly detached defense mechanisms we have seen in half a dozen other blockbusters. He plays the straight man, but sometimes he acts so checked-out that you half-expect him to look straight into the camera and plug an Aviation Gin cocktail. Thankfully, Branagh picks up all the slack. Watching Branagh handle intense physical action sequences while delivering deadpan lines is a revelation. He sells the idea that a high-ranking ex-KGB agent can pivot into a late-career action hero without breaking a sweat.
The plot thickens when a relentless KGB security officer named Alexander Volkov—played with chilling intensity by Marcin Dorociński—starts hunting them down. Volkov wants to use Troy as a political trophy to undermine Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost reforms. The duo has to hit the road, dodging checkpoints, stealing cars, and navigating tense underground networks.
Directors Goldstein and Daley—the creative team behind Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves—excel at pacing. They keep the narrative moving at a brisk clip. The action scenes are distributed evenly throughout the runtime rather than clustered into exhausting, wall-to-wall CGI explosions. Barry Peterson's cinematography is fluid and energetic, giving the Siberian wilderness and subsequent chase sequences a distinct visual pulse.
Of course, the movie stumbles in a few predictable places. Supporting characters get sidelined. Maria Bakalova shows up as Nikolai's estranged daughter Anna, and David Morse appears briefly as Troy's ailing father, but their subplots feel shoehorned in. The script tries to squeeze in heartfelt family drama about standing up to your country, but it never lets those emotional beats breathe. It is always rushing to the next punchline or the next set piece.
Furthermore, the film's heavy-handed nostalgia can occasionally feel a bit exhausting. We get it, the '80s had great needle drops and high-stakes Cold War tension. When the movie ends with a lingering drone shot over Washington D.C. while celebrating the simple virtue of a fast-food burger, you realize how safely ensconced in capitalist comfort food this whole project really is.
Despite those flaws, the undeniable chemistry between the two leads keeps you hooked. Reynolds and Branagh shouldn't work as a duo, but their oil-and-water dynamic sparks genuine laughs.
Stop looking for high art when you browse your streaming queue tonight. Fire up Mayday, enjoy Branagh's career-best swing at broad action-comedy, and accept the ride.
