Just months after Viola Davis played a gun-toting US president saving the day at a G20 summit, along comes another "stupendously idiotic yet eminently watchable" action-buddy movie with a top-tier geopolitical setting, said Kevin Maher in The Times.
This time, the "bickering protagonists" are the leaders of the US and the UK: President Will Derringer (John Cena), a crass populist and former Hollywood action-movie star; and British PM Sam Clarke (Idris Elba), a "cautious, rule-abiding politician" who is suffering "a conspicuous, Starmer-like slump in the polls".
The pair's relationship is initially antagonistic, but when the presidential plane they are travelling on to a Nato summit is attacked by terrorists, forcing them to bail out over Belarus, they start working together – "snapping necks, machine-gunning faceless henchmen and leaping from exploding helicopters" as they go.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The cast deliver handsomely, said Andrew Lawrence in The Guardian. Elba and Cena have proper odd-couple chemistry, and there's a nice turn from Priyanka Chopra as an MI6 agent. It's all "fun, fiery and totally frivolous" – in short, "a perfect summer movie".
-
Political cartoons for November 1Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include insurance premiums, early voting in NYC, and more
-
Salted caramel and chocolate tart recipeThe Week Recommends Delicious dessert can be made with any biscuits you fancy
-
Meet Ireland’s new socialist presidentIn the Spotlight Landslide victory of former barrister and ‘outsider’ Catherine Connolly could ‘mark a turning point’ in anti-establishment politics
-
Salted caramel and chocolate tart recipe
The Week Recommends Delicious dessert can be made with any biscuits you fancy
-
6 trailside homes for hikersFeature Featuring a roof deck with skyline views in California and a home with access to private trails in Montana
-
Lazarus: Harlan Coben’s ‘embarrassingly compelling’ thrillerThe Week Recommends Bill Nighy and Sam Claflin play father-and-son psychiatrists in this ‘precision-engineered’ crime drama
-
The Rose Field: a ‘nail-biting’ end to The Book of Dust seriesThe Week Recommends Philip Pullman’s superb new novel brings the trilogy to a ‘fitting’ conclusion
-
Nigerian Modernism: an ‘entrancing, enlightening exhibition’The Week Recommends Tate Modern’s ‘revelatory’ show includes 250 works examining Nigerian art pre- and post independence
-
The Mastermind: Josh O’Connor stars in unconventional art heist movieThe Week Recommends Kelly Reichardt cements her status as the ‘queen of slow cinema’ with her latest film
-
Critics’ choice: Watering holes for gourmandsFeature An endless selection of Mexican spirits, a Dublin-inspired bar, and an upscale Baltimore pub
-
Film reviews: Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Frankenstein, and Blue MoonFeature A rock star on the rise turns inward, a stressed mother begins to unravel, and more
