Mayday wasn't something I was going to watch and the only reason why I landed on it was because it was suggested by the server that I use to access new films. It said dramedy and it was near 7/10 on IMDB and I didn't have anything in mind to watch so I figured what the hell, why not?
[src](https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/articles/2026/07/apple-original-films-unveils-trailer-for-action-packed-mayday-starring-ryan-reynolds-and-kenneth-branagh/images/all-news-images/071426_Mayday_Trailer_Announcement_news_16_9_regular.jpg.latest_news_og.jpg)I thought this film came out last year but as it turns out it was just earlier this month. As I will detail later, this is available legally only with an AppleTV+ subscription.
The premise/plot of this is kind of unique, sort of. A USA pilot charged with spying on Soviet Russia / USSR crashes behind enemy lines and fears for his own capture but just by luck ends up landing in the proximity of a man who has great admiration of the United States and is sympathetic to the pilot.
This person just happens to be an ex KGB agent who lives alone in the woods and is just left alone by the oppressive (or so we think) Communist government - as unlikely as all of this seems.
One of my favorite Reynolds' role is Deadpool and I think a lot of other people would agree with that. It brought new life to the very tired Marvel name IMO and Reynolds is probably the largest reason why this is the case. However, I think what we ended up with his stellar performance in the Deadpool movies is just Ryan being Ryan rather than this being a well-thought-out character. Now, almost anything that Ryan is in it seems like Deadpool playing another character. It's simply not possible, or so it seems, for him to not be Deadpool in any movie that he is in.
If you watch this for just the first 10 minutes you will see what I am talking about and if you watch the entire thing you start to suspect that Ryan was never advised by anyone involved that he actually was behaving just like Deadpool because he is an executive producer in this movie. The fact that it went straight to streaming suggests to me that this movie might not have ever been made had it not gotten Ryan's stamp of approval - just like nobody would know what the hell Wrexham even is if it wasn't for him (no offense British/Welsh people, but I think you know this is true.)
In the film the ex KGB guy named Nikolai who insists he be called "Nick" is extremely interested in keeping the Lieutenant pilot hidden from the government, and has the skills to beat up a bunch of people to make that happen. The fights are pretty good, even though the notion that they would be able to keep their antics a secret are apparently intentionally silly. I'm ok with that, this is a subtle comedy after all and realism wasn't really a factor.
They do at one point rather effortlessly steal a mobile nuclear weapon and well, even in 1987 - which is when this is meant to be taking place - there would be such extreme safeguards in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
The real standout performance in this movie is definitely the actor who plays "Nick", Kenneth Branagh. I'm still kind of confused how it is that this British person, that apparently has no background in Russia or Russian language is able to pull off a good 50% of his dialogue in that language.
I'm going to have to find a Russian person to watch this and tell me if what the guy says in complete nonsense to a trained ear. For someone like me, it sounds totally legitimate though and I'll give credit to this Ewan McGregor look-alike.
In fact, looking through the lineup of cast members, none of the main speaking roles were given to anyone with a Russian background and perhaps almost all of it is faked. Who knows? Russians are safe "bad guys" in films these days so it all could simply be nonsense as far as the spoken words are concerned.
The CGI goes between horribly bad at first and then 10 minutes later the stuff that happens in the air is so hyper realistic looking that one would think that they really crashed an SR-71 and had a guy parachute from it while doing Mach-2. It doesn't make sense that they would have that look so real and at the same time other things look so fake that it appears to be a film from the 90's.
Whatever right?
Should I watch it?
Well, honestly, I think that this one is decent, but there is likely a very real reason why they opted to not release this in theaters at all. It will hold your attention for the most part but at the end of the day this is simply a story of buddies from totally different backgrounds teaming up for a completely impractical escape from a misunderstood regime.
I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it but i will say that me and the 3 other people I watched it with laughed a bit and overall it mostly held the attention of everyone. Only one person got up to get a drink or go to the bathroom without asking for it to be paused, and I noticed very little in the way of phone activity going on around the sofa. This is pretty rare among my viewing-friends so I think it is safe to say that this is pretty entertaining. The issue here is that this is nothing at all new or inventive and Ryan is Blackpool throughout the entire film - which others may appreciate but I found mildly annoying.
Basically if you are looking for some easy entertainment that doesn't require your full attention and will get some laughs and maybe a few "ooh's and ahh's" from you, this could be the film for you. You will forget you ever watched it a week after you do.
the only legal way to watch this film at the moment is through a subscription to AppleTV+
