Heads of State is a 2025 Prime Video action-comedy film directed by Ilya Naishuller and starring John Cena, Idris Elba, Priyanka Chopra Jones, Paddy Considine, Stephen Root, and Jack Quaid. Sorry, I understand that was a lot of names to list off in the “starring” section, realistically Cena and Elba are the 2 actual stars of the movie and Chopra is the close 3rd, but Paddy plays the main antagonist and Root and Quaid are recognizable names and played big enough roles in this that I felt compelled to add them as well. The characters and the stars playing them made for a funny story though. It follows John Cena as the charismatic, overconfident, action star turned US President named Will Derringer and Idris Elba as the abrasive, grizzled British Prime Minister Sam Clarke and their relationship and dynamic with one another.
Cena and Elba’s banter was good and there were some funny moments created from that, the 2 of them worked together on screen, which is good because the plot of this was sort of hinged on that. They did not get along or see eye to eye at all in the beginning of the movie because Elba’s ‘Clarke’ did not take Cena’s ‘Derringer’ serious within the political realm. They are forced to put their personal/political beef aside when they find themselves at the center of a global conspiracy after they’re shot down out of the sky together in Air Force One and it’s clear that there is a threat on their lives. This is just a fun, turn your brain off, summer action movie and that seems to be what Cena really does best when it comes to acting. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, no Cena movie is going to be taking home many Oscars anytime soon but that’s not really what he’s trying to do. He’s making fun movies with lots and lots of action sequences and humorous moments, with touches of heart sprinkled in, and that’s fine. That’s a classic film formula (especially for action movies) and there is always space for movies like that, and this was definitely one of those movies. Idris Elba has been in much more sophisticated films at this point obviously, but he’s an action star at heart himself, so he felt right at home in his role. Priyanka Chopra Jones as MI6 agent Noel Bisset was the true badass in the movie though and had a lot of the smooth looking, awesome action sequences because her character knew what she was actually doing, more so than Elba or Cena were meant to. Jack Quaid’s character was a nutty station agent with a bunker house absolutely loaded with firepower and he might’ve been my favorite character in the film for the time he was in it, he was wild in a hilarious way and had some badass action sequences as well.
As I kind of already stated, this is a fun, turn your brain off kind of summer action flick that everyone in the family can watch and get enjoyment out of for one reason or another because it gives a little something to everyone. Action, comedy, and romance all find their way into this movie (just some things in larger doses than others). This is one of those films that 10 years or so ago easily would’ve been in theaters but has now been relegated to a streaming service platform just because of the amount of content that’s being released these days. It has explosions, gun fights, plane crashes, hand to hand combat, big name action stars, global threats on democracy, ya know, all the usual we’ve come to expect from an action blockbuster, yet it didn’t get that big theater release. In the long run that’s fine though because this probably makes it more accessible for everyone to get a chance to watch because basically everyone has Prime Video now, and not everyone is willing to spend money at a movie theater nowadays. I think most people should give this one a shot though. One of these summer nights when you’re bored and scrolling through your streaming services and don’t know what to watch and just want to shut your mind off for a couple hours and have some fun with an action blockbuster then this should be it. I’m not going to sit here and say it’s going to blow you away or anything like that, but it is a fun couple of hours, and it kept me engaged so that is not for nothing. Check it out now on Prime Video and let me know what you all think! Until next time!
