Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley haven’t turned in a stinker yet, and that doesn’t stop with Mayday, an Apple TV movie starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh that plays like an ‘80s throwback but has a more modern sensibility on its mind. And while the new flick doesn’t quite reach the heights of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Game Night, or the underrated Vacation reboot, there are still plenty of laugh out loud moments, creative action and charming central performances from the aforementioned duo to make this a rousing time on the ‘ol TV set that would have been a cool blast of fun if it had been released in theaters*.
(*And not for nothing, is a more consistently toned Skydance release than the one that is hitting theaters the same day, By Any Means.)
Directed and written by Goldstein and Daley, the film has a pretty across the plate premise that would feel right at home with direct inspirations like 1985’s Spies Like Us, or even Top Gun, which is referenced incessantly throughout the running time. Reynolds plays Navy fighter pilot Troy Kelly, a man with a sick dad (played by an underused David Morse) and a devotion to his job. That takes him on a classified mission to snap spy pictures in Russia towards the end of the Cold War (this takes place in ‘88, after Mikhail Gorbachev has ascended to power and begun preaching glasnost). After getting shot down, Troy finds himself nursed back to health by an overly friendly former KGB agent named Nikolai (Branagh), who wants to defect to America.
The script hits all the beats you might expect as the duo attempts to escape Soviet Russia together… They don’t trust each other, then they do, then there’s betrayal, and finally resolution. Along the way they encounter a family with an odd demon child, a train full of Russian soldiers, and one bullish KGB agent who devotes himself to tracking them down, attempting to use them to destroy Gorbachev’s regime. But Goldstein and Daley are smart enough to lay out this tried and true formula as an opportunity to reassess the point of view of ‘80s movies that unerringly cast Russians as black and white villains, through a 2026 lens.
What that means is a better understanding that both Russia and America have their faults and their joys; they’re ultimately populated by people, not the ideals depicted in ‘80s movies, despite what the well-worn bootleg of VHS Nikolai has watched 100 times (which includes a missing scene where the cameraman took a bathroom break) would make one think. It’s not a particularly deep exploration, mind you. But between that, a surprisingly understanding view of LGBTQ+ characters, and an asbestos coverup that wouldn’t have meant anything to ‘80s audiences, there’s a solid attempt to take a nuanced view of the era, framed around trope-y storytelling.
The better part is when Goldstein and Daley get to flex a little, particularly comedically. After a rough start with an unnecessary in media res scene, an extremely poorly CGIed bird, and a section that is basically a Deadpool movie without the scar makeup or superheroics, once Branagh and Reynolds get together things pick up considerably and start to get a whole lot goofier. There’s nothing quite on the laugh-so-hard-you-cry level of Chris Pine melting in Dungeons & Dragons or the immortal “Oh no! He died!” from Rachel McAdams in Game Night. But there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, from a hilarious riff on the classic hiding in the closet scene that takes things way beyond the logical extreme, to Nikolai’s odd obsession with babies, to one bit where Reynolds tries to stop a bullet that is brilliantly absurd.
In between, the pair also continue to show a great eye for action. The 65-year-old Branagh might not quite be Jackie Chan (he shoulders the bulk of the fighting, not Reynolds), but the film cuts around all that nicely, holding him in frame and zipping around the punches and kicks. There are plenty of innovatively jarring shots, too, like a head-slam seen from inside a deli case, or following the action above and below the seats during an airplane brawl that succeeds where an extremely similar – but poorly executed – fight in this summer’s Supergirl failed. It’s all creatively staged, and they also know when to pull back and play the action like a punchline: the outcome of a train fight sits in the moment long enough for both the audience and characters to rest, while an explosion in an apartment provides a great punctuation to an escape sequence.
Other than the main duo, Maria Bakalova is solid as always in a brief role as Branagh’s daughter, while Marcin Dorociński looks the part as the KGB heavy hot on their tails. And Louis Cancelmi makes a solid impression in an also brief role as Sanders, a pilot who clashes with Troy (is he there just to set up a Colonel Sanders joke? Yes, of course).
Overall, Mayday is exactly what’s advertised: an ‘80s pastiche with solid comedy, great action, and a dash of sweetness that takes an earnest eye to a lot of the more uncomfortable aspects of ‘80s comedies. It may sit at number four on the list of Daley and Goldstein productions, but that’s head and tails above most other films. Bring on the next one.
Mayday is on Apple TV on September 4, 2026 (though really it’ll probably drop tonight at 9pm ET, since that’s how Apple usually does things).
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