“Mayday”, which was released on Apple TV+ a few days ago, is a very predictable genre exercise with a bit of amusement. As an action comedy film mainly driven by two very different personalities at the center of the story, it works to some degree mainly thanks to the good chemistry between its two good lead performers, but it also somehow does not generate enough fun and excitement, and that is a little disappointing for me.

The movie begins with the introduction of Troy “Assassin” Kelly (Ryan Reynolds), a top-notch US Navy pilot who is as cocky as Tom Cruise in “Top Gun” (1986) and is as wisecracking as that obnoxious anti-superhero figure played Reynolds during last several years. It is 1987, and the Cold War between US and the Soviet Union is being over, but there is still some tension remaining between these two powerful nations as shown from the opening scene, and Kelly is soon assigned to a top-secret reconnaissance operation to be held over the Russian territory.

Along with some humorless US Air Force pilot, Kelly gets on a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, and things seem to be going fairly well as they enter the Russian territory and then get their mission accomplished, but, alas, their aircraft gets suddenly attacked. While he manages to survive alone, Kelly subsequently becomes unconscious, and then he finds himself in a forest cabin belonging to a rather stoic local recluse named Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh).

While surely knowing well who Kelly is, Ustinov is actually very happy to have Kelly inside his cabin. Although he once worked for KGB, Ustinov has been quite disillusioned about the totalitarian system he served without any question for years, and he also turns out to be a big fan of US and its various culture products including, yes, “Top Gun”. Naturally, he is eager to get to know more about Kelly, but escape and survival are certainly the top priority for Kelly, and we soon see these two very different guys clashing a lot with each other to our little amusement.

In the end, Kelly comes to recognize that he must depend on Ustinov more for his survival and escape – especially after it turns out that KGB is already looking for Kelly in the surrounding area. Needless to say, Ustinov is willing to help Kelly because Kelly may help him get out of the Soviet Union along with his estranged daughter currently residing in Moscow.

As these two very different main characters gradually form their rather uneasy alliance along their increasingly risky journey across the Russian territory, the movie cheerfully goes back and forth between comedy and action. Things sometimes become a bit tense as Kelly and Ustinov evade their opponents in one way or another, and the movie serves us several competent action scenes including the one unfolded inside a running train. At the same time, it also tries a lot of comedy here and there, and there is an absurd sequence where Kelly and Ustinov break into a certain big house and then come across a very unexpected circumstance before getting what they want.

However, these and other individual moments in the film do not gel well together on the whole, and the screenplay by directors/writers/co-producers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who previously gave us “Game Night” (2018) and “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (2023), is often too predictable in its plot progress. Yes, Kelly and Ustinov keep clashing with each other as before, and we are not so surprised when they disappoint each other a lot later in the story. Yes, they come to bond with each other more as eventually sticking together more for their respective goals, and you can easily guess in advance when Kelly will finally reveal a certain little personal information of his to Ustinov.

Above all, the movie is also a bit too deficient in terms of personality. It is clear that it wants to do a little fun retro genre game based on not only “Top Gun” but also those countless buddy action comedy flicks ranging from “48 Hrs.” (1982) to “Red Heat” (1988), but the result often too flat and generic, and it also feels quite superficial in case of characterization. While Kelly remains another example of the same schtick Reynolds did again and again in “Deadpool” (2016) and some other notable flicks such as “Free Guy” (2021), Ustinov is mainly defined by his unflappable low-key attitude which mostly functions as a mere counterpoint to Reynold’s increasingly tiresome schtick, and the movie also does not go that deep into Ustinov’s rather complicated personal relationship with his daughter (Maria Bakalova is criminally under-utilized just like several other supporting performers in the film including David Morse and Clark Johnson).

Nevertheless, I must appreciate how Reynolds often clicks well with his co-star from the beginning to the end. Kenneth Branagh, who willingly dials down himself to a considerable degree, demonstrates here that he can do physical action scenes as well as, say, Liam Neeson, and I enjoyed his several moments of deadpan humor, which complement fairly well his co-star’s brash wisecracking.

Overall, “Mayday” turns out to be not as bad or boring as I feared after watching its trailer a few months ago, but it did not amuse me as much as “Game Night”, whose many hilarious moments have grown on me since I watched it in 2018 (Who can possibly forget that brief but undeniably hilarious scene featuring a jet engine, which is accompanied with the amiably priceless comic timing of Rachel McAdams?). Although I did not feel like wasting my 2 hours, it could be more exciting and hilarious in my humble opinion, and I will just let you decide whether you will spend spare time on this passable piece of entertainment.