Heads of State (2025) Movie Review: Cena and Elba Carry An Otherwise Okay Action Comedy
But the highlight, 100%, has to be the limo fight scene all at the rhythm of Mötley Crüe’s “Kickstart My Heart”. Don’t want to spoil it in case you haven’t seen it, but it involves a car chase, more bazooka, flames, more explosions, Cena almost getting his little friend being blown out – it’s hands down one of the best action set pieces of not only the film but the year so far. It’s exhilarating, it’s funny, it’s everything I wished most of the film was. If we had gotten more of that, this would be a full win. In terms of the other people in the cast, Priyanka Chopra is the other highlight, delivering on the badass and having good chemistry with our two guys.
Everybody else was heavily underutilized. Like this is a who’s who of character and emerging actors, with some getting the chance to shine longer in the spotlight, like Quaid with that scene in the house, and at the end, while others have not much to do, such as Stephen Root and Carla Gugino. Paddy Considine is here as the bad guy in another Prime movie (the first being “Deep Cover”), which I couldn’t help but laugh at, yet at the same time feeling kind of disappointed by, as my man barely has anything to do here but drop a few lines and look and act menacing. Let’s just say he had more to do in “Deep Cover” than he does here. And I hope you didn’t come here expecting to see Copley.
All in all, I’m not sure this film would stay with me for as long a time as other films in the genre or even in any of the involved filmographies do, but it’s still a decently entertaining movie. Elba and Cena do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of keeping the film afloat with their solid chemistry. As I’ve said before, I’d honestly put at least one of the action scenes in my top picks for the year; I’ve rewatched it three times today alone.
