Accelerated by artificial intelligence and an indefatigable firehose of content, the uncanny valley between real blockbusters and fake ones is disappearing at an exponential pace. Ten years ago, or even five, a movie like “Mayday” would have arrived in theaters, impressed audiences and entered the canon of slight but engaging fare to watch on repeat whenever it gets broadcast on networks like TNT. Today, it debuts as the #1 film on Apple TV, but seems likely to be forgotten by the time its premiere weekend ends. And that’s a shame, because it’s actually pretty good.
Starring Ryan Reynolds as a U.S. Navy pilot rescued by an ex-KGB agent (Kenneth Branagh) after his spy plane gets shot down over Russia in the waning days of the Cold War, “Mayday” marks the fourth film directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, and it’s a smart, inventive, well-directed action comedy. Bereft of theatrical distribution, it seems slightly doomed to be relegated to the “streaming content” trash heap, even as it shows the kind of filmmaking personality that should be showcased on the biggest screen possible.
Reynolds plays Troy Kelly, a man cut in the mold of Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun” character Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, but with a more altruistic streak: When he breaks the rules, it’s to help a fellow pilot land safely on the aircraft carrier from which they’ve been dispatched. Cultivating such a persona benefits him after he gets shot down over Russia while piloting a spy plane, landing in the arms of Nikolai Ustinov (Branagh), a retired ex-KGB operative who’s obsessed with America (complete with a “Top Gun” poster on the wall of his rustic cabin).
