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Mint
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
‘Heads of State' review: Action film plays to its stars' strengths
Heads of State is exactly what it promises: a fast-paced, action-packed buddy comedy that leans into its absurdity with style, big laughs and big action set pieces. Ilya Naishuller directs a script by Harrison Query, John Applebaum and Andre Nemec, which clearly understands the assignment—pair two mismatched but magnetic leads, toss them into a high-stakes international mess, and let the chemistry and chaos unfold. John Cena and Idris Elba headline the action-comedy as two political powerhouses. Cena plays Will Derringer, a former action movie star whose latest job is as President of the United States, while Idris Elba plays Sam Clarke, the current Prime Minister of the UK. The latter's calm, calculating exterior hides a former life in the British special armed forces, whereas Derringer relies on his celebrity to skate through his tenure. When a diplomatic visit to England almost goes off the rails (over a plate of fish and chips, among things), a little diplomatic engineering provides the perfect photo-op to change the narrative surrounding their public discord. Derringer and Clarke travel on Air Force One together, but things go sideways while they are en route to a NATO meeting in Italy. When their plane gets compromised, the sparring leaders are forced to work together. How can the most secure plane in the world get infiltrated is a question without an answer—a theme to this film which mostly sticks to familiar territory, but plays it with enough energy and charisma to entertain. Priyanka Chopra Jonas is cast as no-nonsense MI6 agent Noel Bisset, who assists the on-the-run heads of state in their international expedition as they attempt to stay out of Viktor Gradov's crosshairs and reach the NATO summit unscathed. The icy Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine) leads a rogue militant faction threatening world leaders during a NATO summit. Naturally, the fate of international diplomacy falls into the hands of Clarke, Derringer, and the highly-skilled Noel, assisted by their respective advisors (Sarah Niles as the American Simone Bradshaw and Richard Coyle as British Quincy Harrington). The casting is the winner here. Cena is a riot. His comic timing is sharp, and he brings a lovable meathead energy to Derringer—star of 'Water Cobra', a movie about a venomous snake in denim. He's the guy who will throw a grenade along with a dialogue from one of his movies, and then immediately high-five himself for it. Idris Elba, on the other hand, is the calm in the storm. His dry delivery and disdain for his American counterpart is perfect, especially when paired with Cena's nonstop antics. Their back-and-forth—often poking fun at British vs. American quirks—is half the fun. Elba's stoic glare bouncing off Cena's impulsiveness doesn't get old and their chemistry carries the movie through its more predictable beats. Noel is a pun-loving, smart and cool agent who balances the otherwise testosterone-heavy leads with Priyanka Chopra Jonas holding her own in nearly every scene she's in. It's refreshing to see her in a role that's funny, physical, and substantial all at once. The action is stylish and quirky. It's not reinventing the genre, but it's done with enough flair and tongue-in-cheek humour to keep things zipping along, smoothly toggling between action and comedy. The action in the backyard of a house in Poland is absurd yet amusing. If there's one weak link, it's the villain. Gradov's not particularly interesting and the movie doesn't spend much time fleshing him out. The real fun is in watching Cena, Elba, and Chopra Jonas play off each other as they try to save the world (and themselves) with minimal planning and maximum chaos. Heads of State succeeds by playing to its stars' strengths. It's pacy, funny, and manages to give its slight premise some bite. 'Heads of State' is on Amazon Prime.
Gulf Today
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Cena and Elba team up for buddy movie ‘Heads of State'
'Heads of State' is not the Cheech & Chong reunion film you've been waiting for, but a comic thriller co-starring John Cena and Idris Elba, premiered on Wednesday on Prime Video. Previously joined in cultural history by the DC super antihero flick 'The Suicide Squad,' the actors have remade their rivalrous characters there into an odd couple of national leaders here, dealing with conspiratorial skulduggery, bullets, bombs and the like. Call me dim, but I wasn't even half aware that Cena, whose muscles have muscles, maintains a long, successful career in professional wrestling — which is, of course, acting — alongside his more conventional show business pursuits; he's ever game to mock himself and not afraid to look dumb, which ultimately makes him look smart, or to appear for all intents and purposes naked at the 2024 Oscars, presenting the award for costume design. (He was winning, too, in his schtick with Jimmy Kimmel.) Elba, whose career includes a lot of what might be called prestige genre, has such natural poise and gravity that one assumes he's done all the Shakespeares and Shaws and Ibsens, but 'The Wire' and 'Luther' were more his thing. He was on many a wish list as the next James Bond, and while that's apparently not going to happen, something of the sort gets a workout here. Elba plays British Prime Minister Sam Clarke, described as 'increasingly embattled' in his sixth year in office, who is about to meet Cena's recently elected American president, Will Derringer, on the eve of a trip to Trieste, Italy, for a NATO conference. (Why Clarke is embattled is neither explained nor important.) Derringer resents Clarke, who can't take him seriously, for having seemed to endorse his opponent by taking him out for fish and chips. (This is a recurring theme.) An international star in the Schwarzenegger/Stallone mold — 'Water Cobra' is his franchise — one might call Derringer's election ridiculous, but I live in a state that actually did elect Schwarzenegger as its governor, twice. Wet behind the ears ('He still hasn't figured out the difference between a press conference and a press junket,' somebody says), Derringer thinks a lot of himself, his airplane, his knowing Paul McCartney and his position. Beyond aspirational platitudes, he has no real politics, but as we first see him carrying his daughter on his shoulders, we know he's really OK. Directed by Ilya Naishuller ('Nobody') and written by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Harrison Query, the movie begins with a scene set at the Tomatino Festival in Buñol, Spain, in which great crowds of participants lob tomatoes at each other in a massive food fight — it's a real thing — foreshadowing the blood that will soon be flowing through the town square, as a team of unidentified bad guys ambush the British and American agents who are tracking them. They've been set up, declares M16 agent Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), who is later reported 'missing and presumed dead' — meaning, of course, that she is very much alive and will be seen again; indeed, we will see quite a lot of her. Meanwhile, the prime minister and the president board Air Force One for Trieste. They talk movies: 'I like actual cinema,' says Clarke, who claims to have never seen one of Derringer's pictures. 'I'm classically trained,' the movie star protests. 'Did you know I once did a play with Edward Norton? But the universe keeps telling me I look cool with a gun in my hand — toy gun.' Following attacks within and without the plane, the two parachute into Belarus and, for the remainder of the film, make their way here and there, trying to evade the private army of Russian arms dealer and sadistic creep Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine) led by your typical tall blond female assassin (Katrina Durden). They'll also meet Stephen Root as a computer guy and Jack Quaid as a comical American agent. Elsewhere, Vice President Elizabeth Kirk (Carla Gugino) takes charge. ('Bad?' is the note I wrote. I've seen my share of political thrillers.) Tribune News Service
Los Angeles Times
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Heads of State' review: John Cena and Idris Elba team up for more action, less politics
'Heads of State' is not the Cheech & Chong reunion film you've been waiting for, but a comic thriller co-starring John Cena and Idris Elba, premiering Wednesday on Prime Video. Previously joined in cultural history by the DC super antihero flick 'The Suicide Squad,' the actors have remade their rivalrous characters there into an odd couple of national leaders here, dealing with conspiratorial skulduggery, bullets, bombs and the like. Call me dim, but I wasn't even half aware that Cena, whose muscles have muscles, maintains a long, successful career in professional wrestling — which is, of course, acting — alongside his more conventional show business pursuits; he's ever game to mock himself and not afraid to look dumb, which ultimately makes him look smart, or to appear for all intents and purposes naked at the 2024 Oscars, presenting the award for costume design. (He was winning, too, in his schtick with Jimmy Kimmel.) Elba, whose career includes a lot of what might be called prestige genre, has such natural poise and gravity that one assumes he's done all the Shakespeares and Shaws and Ibsens, but 'The Wire' and 'Luther' were more his thing. He was on many a wish list as the next James Bond, and while that's apparently not going to happen, something of the sort gets a workout here. Elba plays British Prime Minister Sam Clarke, described as 'increasingly embattled' in his sixth year in office, who is about to meet Cena's recently elected American president, Will Derringer, on the eve of a trip to Trieste, Italy, for a NATO conference. (Why Clarke is embattled is neither explained nor important.) Derringer resents Clarke, who can't take him seriously, for having seemed to endorse his opponent by taking him out for fish and chips. (This is a recurring theme.) An international star in the Schwarzenegger/Stallone mold — 'Water Cobra' is his franchise — one might call Derringer's election ridiculous, but I live in a state that actually did elect Schwarzenegger as its governor, twice. Wet behind the ears ('He still hasn't figured out the difference between a press conference and a press junket,' somebody says), Derringer thinks a lot himself, his airplane, his knowing Paul McCartney and his position. Beyond aspirational platitudes, he has no real politics, but as we first see him carrying his daughter on his shoulders, we know he's really OK. Directed by Ilya Naishuller ('Nobody') and written by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Harrison Query, the movie begins with a scene set at the Tomatino Festival in, Buñol, Spain, in which great crowds of participants lob tomatoes at each other in a massive food fight — it's a real thing — foreshadowing the blood that will soon be flowing through the town square, as a team of unidentified bad guys ambush the British and American agents who are tracking them. They've been set up, declares M16 agent Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), who is later reported 'missing and presumed dead' — meaning, of course, that she is very much alive and will be seen again; indeed, we will see quite a lot of her. Meanwhile, the prime minister and the president board Air Force One for Trieste. They talk movies: 'I like actual cinema,' says Clarke, who claims to have never seen one of Derringer's pictures. 'I'm classically trained,' the movie star protests. 'Did you know I once did a play with Edward Norton? But the universe keeps telling me I look cool with a gun in my hand — toy gun.' Following attacks within and without the plane, the two parachute into Belarus and, for the remainder of the film, make their way here and there, trying to evade the private army of Russian arms dealer and sadistic creep Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine) led by your typical tall blond female assassin (Katrina Durden). They'll also meet Stephen Root as a computer guy and Jack Quaid as a comical American agent. Elsewhere, Vice President Elizabeth Kirk (Carla Gugino) takes charge. ('Bad?' is the note I wrote. I've seen my share of political thrillers.) There will be hand-to-hand combat, missiles, machine-gun shoot-em-ups, more than a couple helicopters and a car chase through the streets of Trieste — a lovely seaside/hillside city I recommend if you're thinking of Italy this summer. Must I tell you that antipathy will turn to appreciation as our heroes make common cause, get a little personal and, with the able Agent Bisset, become real-life action heroes? That they are middle-aged is not an issue, though there is a joke about the American movie star being less fit than the U.K. politician. The logline portends a comedy, possibly a parody, even a satire. It's definitely the first of these, if not especially subtle or sharp (Derringer stuck in a tree, hanging from a tangled parachute; Clarke setting off a smoke bomb in his own face — that did make me laugh), a little bit the second, and not at all the third, even though it sniffs around politics a bit. Above all, like many, most or practically all action films, it's a fantasy in which many things happen that would not and could not ever, ever happen in the real world, because that's not how people or physics behave. (It certainly doesn't represent America in 2025.) There is just as much character development or backstory as is necessary to make the players seem more or less human. Plot-wise there are a lot of twists, because the script superimposes a couple of familiar villainous agendas into a single narrative; it's mildly diverting without being compelling, which, I would think, will ultimately work in its favor as hectic, lightly violent entertainment. Not even counting the orgy of anonymous death that has qualified as family entertainment for some time now — blame video games, I won't argue — it's a painless watch, and, in its cheery, fantastic absurdity, something of a respite from the messier, crazier, more unbelievable world awaiting you once the credits have rolled.
Time Out
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Where was ‘Heads of State' shot? The locations behind Idris Elba's new action-comedy
Heads of State is a buddy action comedy where the feuding US President and British Prime Minister travel across Europe to thwart a global conspiracy. Think Midnight Run meets Air Force One, with director Ilya Naishuller (Nobody) promising 'a throwback to the buddy movies of the 1980s and '90s… shot through a modern lens'. Heads of State is made all the more enjoyable by its bickering comic duo: Idris Elba's ex-SAS-trained Prime Minister Sam Clarke, and John Cena's US President and action movie star Will Derringer. It's co-written by Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol pair Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec. To give the film a global scale, Naishuller and his crew shot in four European countries. 'This is a true road movie where we actually travel the world to capture an eclectic cross section of backdrops,' explains producer John Rickard. But where exactly was Heads of Stat e shot? Take a look below to find out. What happens in Heads of State? Clarke and Derringer have a very public rivalry. As an SAS-trained veteran, Clarke looks down on Hollywood action star Derringer. Clarke is particularly frustrated because, while he's a career politician who struggled his way up to become Prime Minister, Derringer is hugely popular across the world after recently being elected. With tensions simmering between the pair, the countries' special relationship is at risk. Derringer and Clarke are forced to fly to a NATO summit in Italy together to show that there are no hard feelings. On the way, though, Air Force One is shot down. Still intent on getting to the summit, they're soon joined by MI6 agent Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), who vows to keep them safe. Derringer and Clarke have to work together to not just stay alive, but to also figure out who tried to kill them. Where was Heads of State filmed? Elba, Cena and co had their own Eurotrip making Heads of States, venturing to France, England, Serbia, and Italy for filming. The tomato festival was filmed in Sospel, France Heads of States' opening sequence – where Noel chases Paddy Considine's international arms dealer — unfolds at the Tomatino Festival. The tomato-flinging event, the world's biggest food fight, has been held annually in Buñol, Spain since 1945. Unable to film in Spain (or use actual tomatoes), Heads of State 's version of the Tomatino Festival sequence was actually filmed in a square in Sospel in southern France. Visual effects, SFX and props were used to recreate the tomatoey carnage. The production also used a studio in Nice to film the interiors of the final car chase (see below). The plane crash scene was filmed at Longcross Studios, England For the plane crash scene, the crew created a huge replica of Air Force One in Longcross Studios, Surrey. Longcross was also used for various other interior sequences, including scenes set at a Warsaw safe house. When the plane is shot down, Clarke and Derringer land in a remote area of Belarus. Rather than Eastern Europe, production designer Niall Moroney rejigged a military base near Surrey to show the crash-landing. Liverpool's St George's Hall and the Port of Liverpool Building cameo for scenes of a NATO summit in Trieste, Italy. The farmyard fight was filmed in Serbia While in Belarus, Derringer and Clarke try to hot wire a car to get to a safe house in Warsaw, Poland. However, when a group of local farmers spot them, a brawl ensues. Those scenes were filmed in Serbia. The car chase was filmed in Trieste, Italy At the end of Heads of State, Derringer and Clarke use the presidential SUV known as 'the Beast' in a car chase. The vehicle's interiors were filmed in France, while stunt drivers drove the car and five pursuing vehicles down the tiny, narrow streets in Trieste. Who stars in Heads of State? John Cena and Idris Elba share headline duties, reuniting after their collaboration on 2021's The Suicide Squad. Priyanka Chopra Jonas is best known for Prime Video action thriller series Citadel and the movies Baywatch, Isn't It Romantic, and The Matrix Resurrections. Heads of State's cast is rounded out by Paddy Considine, The Boys' Jack Quaid, Barry's Stephen Root, Ted Lasso's Sarah Niles, Sin City's Carla Gugino and District 9 star Sharlto Copley. How can I watch Heads of State and when does it come out? Heads of State is streaming on Prime Video from July 2. Is there a trailer? There is, and you can check it below. . The best movies of 2025 (so far).
The Journal
27-06-2025
- The Journal
Gardaí rush to seize 3D-printed guns made for the price of a box of cigarettes
GARDAÍ FEAR DRUG gangs in Ireland have made connections with a gun supplier who's providing criminals with lethal 'throw away' 3D-printed plastic guns, The Journal has learned. It comes after gardaí seized at least five of the guns, known as Harlot 22LR or Derringer break-action pistols, in recent days. It's believed the guns, which have a distinctive green colouring, were printed from a file that's downloadable online. The seizures happened in Dublin, Tipperary and in Shannon. The Shannon incident happened on Friday morning and it was part of a broader intelligence led operation targeting organised crime in the area. We have discovered a large number of websites, apparently hosted in the US, which permit a member of the public in Ireland to get the blueprints to enable a DIY version of the gun to be produced at home. The devices can only be constructed with 3D printers which cost between €300 to €2,000 for basic models. Gardaí are investigating the proliferation of these 3D-printed guns, however sources said that at this stage of their probe it's not year clear whether they're being produced abroad or being manufactured in Ireland. One of the websites advertising the print file for a gun similar to the ones seized in Ireland offers the plans for less than the price of a box of cigarettes in Ireland – less than $20 US. The website describes it as a 'throw away' gun. A stock image of a gun printing device. Shutterstock Shutterstock 3D-printed guns became more widely available in the mid-2010s, with Texas-based 'crypto-anarchist' Cody Wilson playing a central role by offering the digital schematics needed to make a weapon. Advertisement Europol have also issued warnings about Far Right extremists obtaining printed guns. Dissident Republican groups, such as Óglaigh na hÉireann (OnH), have been spotted at events wielding 9mm 3D printed FGC sub-machine (FCG stands for 'Fuck Gun Control'). It is understood Far Right groups in the UK have also been spotted with the same guns. Mark Wolf was jailed for 10 years in 2023 . Gardaí found child sexual abuse imagery on his phones and footage of a massacre of Muslim worshipers by a white supremacist in New Zealand. In 2022 a man, who is originally from the UK, was arrested by gardaí in possession of homemade guns in Dublin – he was a Far Right sympathiser, and was later jailed. Ghost guns The US has been gripped in an epidemic of so-called 'ghost guns' – which is a term that broadly describes firearms that are bought as incomplete frames and receivers. These components are being purchased across the US as they bypass US Law Enforcement. The 'ghost guns' are then turned into functional guns by assembling them with other parts that can be ordered separately. Brian Thompson, CEO of US health insurer UnitedHealthcare , was allegedly shot dead by Luigi Mangione using a ghost gun. Sources have said that ghost guns of this type have have not appeared in Ireland as yet. In the past illegal firearms were either stolen from legitimate owners such as farmers or were shipped into Ireland in drug shipments or attained from stocks of weapons formerly held by the IRA. A statement has been requested from An Garda Síochána. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
