'Mayday' Review
- Andrew Auger
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Release Date: 09/04/26 [Apple TV]
Genre: Action. Adventure. Comedy. Thriller.
MPAA: Rated PG13.
Distributor: Apple TV.
The Verdict: A Must-See
The new Apple TV+ action-comedy Mayday opens with a setting that is familiar for unusual reasons. Lieutenant Troy Kelly, the Navy pilot turned CIA operative played by Ryan Reynolds, wakes up in a frigid Russian forest, surrounded by snow-covered trees and the wreckage of his crashed plane. It’s a startling and perilous situation for his character to be in, no doubt about it. It’s a (literally) cold open that in one specific way, the snow-covered forest setting reminded me of the opening of Deadpool & Wolverine, the last Ryan Reynolds action flick. It’s merely a coincidence, but it did spawn the kind of comparison that has plagued Reynolds through the last decade of his career. The first phase of his career, failed leading man but successfully energetic supporting player, ended with the monumental success of the original Deadpool. Though Reynolds is undeniably good at playing the sarcastic motormouth, he also has been criticized for playing that same character over and over again. There’s playing the hits, and then there’s overplaying the hits, particularly for these popular streaming movies.
In terms of its star and its story, Mayday is hardly breaking any new ground. This is your typical mismatched buddy comedy, with Reynolds paired this time with Kenneth Branagh. He’s playing a perky Russian colleague whose surprising skills help the American try to survive the might of the Soviet Union. The Cold War used to be a hot choice of an era for these kinds of movies, most notably the Dan Aykroyd-Chevy Chase ’80s comedy Spies Like Us. Typical does not necessarily mean bad, particularly in the right hands. Writer/directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are no strangers to surpassing expectations. Both 2018’s Game Night and 2023’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves found ways to make formula feel fresh, relying on star charisma and a bit of visual juice to entertain. Mayday is not as successful as either of those movies, but it’s not far off.
Mayday takes place in 1987, and that year is important because the Cold War is just a few years away from thawing. There’s an obligatory feeling to the espionage that both sides are conducting, as 40+ years of nuclear paranoia can only generate so much tension. Still, the inherent duties of patriotism call Kelly, whose callsign is “Assassin” for reasons kept hidden for much of the film, to any duty that his country requires. When his superior officer (a wasted Clark Johnson) asks him to help ride along in a spy plane to photograph missile silos in enemy territory, he says yes without question.
That mission doesn’t go as planned, and Kelly barely survives an ambush, crash-landing deep in Soviet territory. Injured with no ability to communicate with the U.S. and a very limited ability to blend in and speak the language, he’s rescued by Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh). Proudly displaying his Top Gun poster and blasting the Born in the U.S.A. cassette tape in his secluded cabin, Nick is the rare Russian who adores American culture, immediately claiming Kelly as his own personal “Maverick”. He also happens to be a retired but still lethal KGB operative whose skills and smarts are crucial to the two men's survival against the threat. Though the Gorbachev regime has little interest in reigniting tensions between the two countries, others in the Russian government have their own agenda, particularly the dogged Volkov (Polish actor Marcin Dorociński).
There are plenty of hijinks and exasperated quips from Reynolds on his character’s way back to safety, which is nothing new. The star doesn’t try too hard to deviate from what usually works, though he can do a little more dramatic acting than usual in his brief scenes with Kelly’s ill father, played well by David Morse. Daley and Goldstein are well aware of what they hired Reynolds to do, and they let him do just that, but they challenge Branagh to really lean into the wildcard role. The British actor/director is best known for his Shakespearean street credit and his ability to play a serious, sometimes scary presence in movies like Hamlet and Tenet (another character with a Russian accent). Mayday uses those expectations and plays against them. Branagh clearly has a great time showing a wackier, sillier side of the professionalism he portrays so well.
Nikolai is written with an interesting mix of optimism and disillusionment. He hates his own country’s policies and is compelled by the more serene life promised by American culture, though one could say he’s misinterpreting the tone of Bruce Springsteen’s words. He’s willing to help Kelly, but only if he can help secure that better life and allow him to bring his estranged daughter, Anna (Maria Bakalova), to the States. When Daley and Goldstein take brief breaks from each on-the-run set piece, they allow Troy and Nikolai to actually talk about the differences between the two countries, particularly the biases that Troy has been fed about the Russian commonfolk his entire life. There’s a worse version of this movie that would be little more than a rah-rah America picture, but credit is due to showing as much balance as possible between these two characters.
Having said that, Mayday is inconsistent with how much it actually cares about any of this stuff. The same goes for its story, too often taking the easy route out for some of these moral and practical dilemmas. This is especially true during the very rushed third act, which features crosses and choices that burst the credibility bubble. Even if this wasn’t the most realistic story in Hollywood history, there’s an ease to the way that the duo can steal vehicles, particularly planes and military convoys, that feels like it's in service of the action, not the other way around.
Daley and Goldstein clearly know what they are doing with their action scenes, and there are quite a few moments of mayhem in Mayday where the cinematography and editing work together for a pleasing burst of eye candy. The digitally manipulated camera swoops in and out of impossible angles, which sometimes feels like inspired choices meant to boost the beats, and other times feels like a cheat to mask the limitations of the CGI. Mayday certainly looks like a streaming action movie. While it sometimes looks pretty good, it too often features some heinous imagery, like a completely unconvincing CG moose and some horrifying digital alterations to the face of Branagh’s stunt double.
If you can deal with these pains, Mayday settles in as a fun, if a bit forgettable, watch. These movies live and die by the chemistry of its stars, and the Reynolds/Branagh combo has just enough of what they need to have to make this work. The comedy, like everything else, is inconsistent, but the few bits that work are inspired and quite clever. Mayday won’t solve world peace, but watchers in all countries will find something to enjoy.
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