'Heads of State': Silly movies are for summer

The CIA has a lot of trouble in its travels around the world, particularly when it sets foot in Spain. There are traditions. In Spain, there are traditions , and the CIA and, in general, Anglo-Saxon secret agents have to deal with their intricate symbolism. Hollywood has set its sights on these ostentatious and outrageous customs of ours, because the Thanksgiving Day Parade with balloons or Mardi Gras in New Orleans just aren't cutting it anymore. Then they discovered the Tomatina festival in Buñol , Valencia, and they said: well, let's start our film in Buñol, Valencia. What better way to combine spies and tomatoes?

Heads of State mixes espionage and food waste in its first sequence, which is quite long and makes you wonder why it's so hard to believe. " Volaré " by the Gipsy Kings plays. The Gipsy Kings are French, but since Volaré is in Spanish, it's, after all, a tomato song. Hollywood doesn't mess around when it comes to tomatoes.

Hollywood has discovered La Tomatina, in Buñol, Valencia, and it has been said: well, let's start our film in Buñol, Valencia.

In the midst of the Tomatina , we witness the classic scene where the CIA and MI6 launch an operation to capture an arms dealer. It's well known that if arms dealers like anything, it's being in Buñol for the Tomatina. There are many agents deployed, surreptitious, lots of technology, and lots of Americans talking to themselves. The bad guy walks among the people of Buñol, who are slashing each other with tomatoes. Then the shooting starts. The CIA loses, because it doesn't understand Spain.

Heads of State proposes a whole world out of throwing tomatoes . Naturally, it's an absurd world, one of enormous waste. They must have spent one hundred or one hundred and fifty million dollars on having Idris Elba and John Cena play, respectively, the President of the United States and the British Prime Minister, Priyanka Chopra Jonas slap the punches nonstop (as her name somehow suggests), and a Russian, Ilya Naishuller, direct the whole shebang. The Russian has been famous since Harcore Henry (2015), and a great director since Nobody (2021).

The film is a buddy movie and a road movie, and also a great joke about the friendly rivalry between Americans and the English. John Cena plays a president halfway between Donald Trump and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he abides by that crucial principle of politics as understood by the White House: you have to put on a show. Idris Elba , as the English leader, is more bureaucratic and efficient. They're a contrast. I don't know why people in Hollywood imagine an English prime minister to be a serious guy.

Elba, as an English leader, is more efficient and bureaucratic. I don't know why Hollywood imagines an English prime minister to be serious.

Soon, these vigorous presidents find themselves embroiled in an adventure reminiscent of Lethal Weapon IV , with a touch of Mortadelo and Filemón . The attacks all go well; in the film, the bad guy has everything under control and doesn't miss a beat: NATO. The White House, the Stock Market, missiles, and Likes . Presidents are on the run; they're mendicant heads of state, leaders who need to hitchhike.

The fights and shootouts are top-notch, as dynamic and electrifying as a party at Topuria's house . There's a great lack of respect for Belarus, where the presidential adventure begins. Belarus is full of quinquis who listen to techno and wear the tracksuits their grandmothers bought them at the market when they were kids. Punching and shooting, heads of state travel across half of Europe to reach Trieste. There's something sadistic about Hollywood movies that decide to film in Europe so they can fill its streets with burning cars and explosions, as we saw in The gray man . I think it's envy.

Heads of State is a stupid movie where everyone is very good. Jack Quaid, son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, shines in his small, servile, sacrificial role, shooting to the tune of The Beastie Boys. The bad guy, Paddy Considine ( Gangland ), is crying out for a James Bond movie. We even get another glimpse of Carla Gugino ( Snake Eyes ), who is always enjoyable.

The film is a triumphant medley of humor and acrobatics , and it does us the favor of not introducing any childishness or sentimentality between one action scene and the next. These transitions are resolved with curious dialogues of a certain substance. Idris Elba champions "real cinema" over the violent and frivolous films his partner in crime has starred in, or over Heads of State itself. And both, at one point, also wonder why they ever thought of becoming president of a country, with all the disappointments that presidencies bring. It's an important question: why does anyone want to preside over their country? There's psychopathy, vanity, delusions of grandeur, and hidden trauma in this boundless ambition. Then they'll laugh at you in Hollywood.