{"id":758472,"date":"2026-09-03T06:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T06:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/758472\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T06:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T06:22:10","slug":"apple-tvs-witty-mayday-puts-ryan-reynolds-exactly-where-he-belongs-behind-enemy-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/758472\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple TV\u2019s witty Mayday puts Ryan Reynolds exactly where he belongs: behind enemy lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ryan Reynolds portrays the U.S. Air Force pilot Troy Kelly in Mayday, premiering Sept. 4 on Apple TV.Jan Thijs\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Mayday<\/p>\n

Written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley <\/p>\n

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Kenneth Branagh and Maria Bakalova <\/p>\n

Classification N\/A; 111 minutes<\/p>\n

Streaming on Apple TV starting Sept. 4<\/p>\n

Critic\u2019s Pick <\/p>\n

The new Soviet Russia-set action film Mayday has as many green flags as it raises big, fat red ones.<\/p>\n

The warning signs are certainly plentiful, starting with the fact that the big-budget film is not being released in theatres, instead debuting straight on Apple TV. Then there\u2019s the leading presence of Ryan Reynolds, who, from the marketing materials presented, seems to be doing his grating \u201cain\u2019t I a stinker?\u201d shtick, which has been a pox on the Hollywood landscape since way before Deadpool first cracked wise. And wait, is that Kenneth Branagh, who has no Russian heritage to speak of and only a shaky confidence in his Russian accent, playing yet another Moscow heavy following his turns in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and Tenet? Mayday, indeed. <\/p>\n

Yet look beyond the alarm bells and you\u2019ll see that the movie is written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the duo behind Game Night<\/a> and Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, two seemingly disposable Hollywood films that were far more crafty and wickedly entertaining than anyone might have expected. If there are any working filmmakers who can shake up what on paper seems like a staid project, it\u2019s them. And, for the most part, that\u2019s just what Goldstein and Daley do with Mayday. <\/p>\n

A rip-roaringly paced, imaginatively shot buddy comedy that feels inspired by just enough rewatches of Top Gun, Black Rain and Red Heat without feeling completely redundant, Mayday plays to everyone\u2019s strengths. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The buddy comedy pairs Reynolds, right, with Kenneth Branagh, playing a former KGB agent who has become obsessed with the American dream.Jan Thijs\/Supplied<\/p>\n

The set-up is simple: It is 1987, the Cold War is raging and U.S. Air Force pilot Troy Kelly (Reynolds) is behind enemy lines in the Russian wilderness, following a crash of his fighter jet during a black-ops mission. Just as he is about to be taken into custody by Russian forces, Kelly is rescued by Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh), a former KGB agent who has become obsessed with the American dream. The two then embark on a run-and-gun mission across the country, with Kelly promising Ustinov sanctuary in the United States \u2013 and all the McDonald\u2019s he can eat \u2013 if he gets him to the U.S. embassy in Moscow. <\/p>\n

While Goldstein and Daley sometimes allow Reynolds to slip in a few too many wiseacre gags, they mostly keep the dialogue economical and the action visceral. What\u2019s more, the pair are keenly aware that their many shootouts, fist fights and car chases need to be shot with equal parts outrageousness and discipline. This might seem like common sense for Hollywood but feels like a technique abandoned by studios and streamers over the past decade and a half. Mayday\u2019s set pieces are visually coherent, intricately designed and paced with a keen sense of, well, fun. <\/p>\n

Delightfully silly, sharply wry Coyote vs. Acme is a Looney Tunes movie for our moment<\/a><\/p>\n

The whole thing moves at such a brisk clip that I can even forgive Branagh\u2019s more-Boris-and-Natasha-than-believable Russian accent, and the soundtrack\u2019s heavy reliance on Bruce Springsteen. (I\u2019m glad that the Apple budget afforded the directors to gain such expensive song rights, but you\u2019re only allowed to needle-drop I\u2019m on Fire once, not twice.) <\/p>\n

The only lingering shame of Mayday is that absolutely everyone will watch this big-scale film on their respective small screens. There is no guarantee, and in fact a lot of doubt, that the movie might have made the box-office impact of Apple\u2019s last big theatrical release, F1. But it could have made a decent dent, and offered a big, loud counterpoint to the idea that Reynolds might be a star who, Deadpool aside, is best left to streaming. There\u2019s life in the guy yet \u2013 so long as you have the right people directing him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Ryan Reynolds portrays the U.S. Air Force pilot Troy Kelly in Mayday, premiering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,23895,2839,14367,250329,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-758472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-film-review","tag-movies","tag-noastack","tag-streamingbestof","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}