Whether you like Top Gun or not, you can’t really escape it. That’s the lesson I’m taking from buddy (Nyet! “comrade”) road comedy adventure Mayday, a fantasy describing what certainly wouldn’t happen if an American top gunner got caught behind enemy lines during the height of the Cold War.
The fighter pilot is Troy Kelly (Ryan Reynolds), call sign “Assassin.” [The call sign is kinda badassassin until the origin reveal, which is funny.] Troy is Maverick, the best of the best of the best as he demonstrates while using his plane to spot-weld a mechanical issue on his colleague’s jet fighter while in flight. No, that can’t possibly happen in real life, but what are you watching this film for, anyway?
A few scenes later, Troy is downed on the outskirts of Siberia. For reasons only known to the film, they let the best pilot in the Navy play navigator on a dangerous mission. Now Troy is left for dead, and we know American politics at this time: he will be denied long before he is claimed. You’re on your own, Goose.
Luckily, Troy has an ally, a weirdly American obsessed ex-KGB cabin-dweller named Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh). Nikolai has a treasure trove of American contraband, probably acquired during his days as KGB. Nikolai collects Troy -more American contraband- ahead of the authorities and brings him back surreptitiously to his cabin. As Nickolai nurses Troy back to health, he has to find the place where Troy trusts him.
Yeah, that ain’t gonna happen.
However, 
Troy really doesn’t have a choice. He’s over 1,000 miles from a US Embassy in one direction or the Finnish border in another. And ain’t nobody comin’ to the rescue. So, hey, who’s up for a buddy road comedy, huh? Huh?
Mayday is kinda fun and kinda deep and kinda stirring and kinda exciting and kinda funny and kinda heartfelt without really being any of these things on its own. This all probably means if you’re looking for something deep or stirring or exciting or funny or heartfelt by itself, the film is bound to disappoint. I, however, enjoyed the pieces and the roles. We’re used to seeing Reynolds play the irreverent smartass; he tones that down here a bunch, as is probably requisite of a US soldier in the Reagan era. By contrast, Branagh is absolutely delightful as the wannabe American ex-KGB tough guy. This is one of those times that I truly wish this film had come out during the Reagan presidency; if it had, we might have given a second thought to our biases.
There once was a pilot named Troy
In Soviet Russia he had to deploy
For his plane crashed town
In some Cyrillic town
Now there’s a continent between him and “enjoy”
Rated PG-13, 110 Minutes
Director: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
Writer: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
Genre: Comrade road comedy
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Detractors of “Evil Empire” rhetoric
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who like their Reagan-era political views to stay simple
