Heads of State

You can tell very quickly where this was going right at the start. It opens with a CIA team spying on the movies villains. The team is made up of 3 white males 1 black male, 1 Asian male, 1 white female and 1 Indian female. Way to check the DEI boxes. The Indian female is of course the one in charge and is a total girlboss. Naturally the villains are white and there are the usual feminist 'badass' females characters everywhere. The op is compromised and all the males are easily and quickly
killed off while the girlboss is superhumanly invincible and amazing. We are then introduced to the POTUS John Cena. Once your done laughing at the absurdity of that bit of casting we meet the black Prime Minister, never mind there has never been a black prime minister. Naturally the president is a complete buffoon and an unqualified joke and ex-actor who is an abrasive loudmouth who only cares about popularity. It seemed to be trying to make fun of Trump but honestly I'm not sure if it's that or just the U.S. in general. The prime minister on the other hand is smart, intelligent and capable. Some of the acting is pretty bad, the action scenes are poorly done and the jokes just aren't funny. The DEI casting in general is through the roof and white people are a minority unless their villains or stupid. I couldn't take any more and gave
up about 30 minutes in.

Maybe watch the middle of the movie

The problem with Heads of State is it starts and end preaching not so subtle liberal virtues and, Jesus, this film is DEI soup.

The middle of the film a fun, explosion-filled, action packed CGI blast fest.

We check every DEI box needing to be hit in the first action packed 5 minutes. Girl Boss is Salt. Like, Angelina Jolie in Salt. Angelina wasn't a girl boss. She was Salt. Noel (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) is the unstoppable girl boss and, yes, she's kind of bossy too. We also have supporting girl boss as the Vice President and Olga the Killer, each with less screen time than Noel. I didn't find them as egregious as they could have been. The bad guys, however are white and evil as can be. Every. Last. One of them. Including the most evil one of them all Stephen Root as the hacker with a flying toasters screensaver. Nice touch.

The adoration of President Will Derringer, silly hats, tattoos and pop culture all screams Trump except Will kind of reminds me of Jimmy Kimmel. It took me a while to get up-to-speed on Will. He is the class clown, laughable and a stupid Internet meme making jokes and screaming at the sky, some might say similar to Trump, until his liberal world views are exposed and we learn to love him in our hearts! He transitions from a MAGA goon to a real human.

And why is the British Prime Minister black? Lazy, stupid, DEI inclusion by dim writers. Could I do better? Yes! How about we make Sam and Will rival professional wrestlers. Sam is Eskimo or Native American. The two have a long and sorted past. Sam hit Will in the head with a folding chair years ago and Will still holds a grudge. That is not inclusion just for the hell of it. That's writing!

In the end, Heads of State almost comes off as a feel good movie, but it's kind of a let down. I want to keep it for a rewatch, but it's preachy and the adrenaline filled fun is always brought down right after by political jabs.

A pretty fun Buddy-cop movie!

Buddy-cop stories fall mostly into 2 categories: A grizzled old timer is paired with a promising guy that thinks he owns the place, or a goody two shoes + a guy who is great at his job, but does it in a way that breaks too many laws. Here we have the former
President Will is all about the show, the popularity. Everything american crystalized into a sharp-chinned man, that looks great holding a gun. Against him is Prime Minister Sam. Has been at it for 6 years, actually served in the UK army, has been making his country a better place and is, of course, not a fan of Will. Their dynamic is great and the comedy never felt like it was overtaking the tone of the movie! I did find the CGI to be pretty... not-pretty, at times, but the fight scenes were really well made and paced, especially as the movie progressed. The plot-twists were also nice! Defeating the villain wasn't the goal of the narrative as much as it was a thing for the characters to overcome so him not being deeply explored didn't feel like an issue.
And I personally enjoy that part of the movie took place in Poland!
So yeah, solid movie. Typical buddy-copish message about overcoming your differences and projecting that out to politics was a nice spin!

And now the Woke part:

People argue that the movie rushes DEI checkmarks in the first 5 minutes with the CIA/MI6 scene, but I do still think think this is harsh and unprescedented.
The agents shown in the first scene are of different races, sure. But they took so little screen time that I could barely tell which, and also got killed in the first 10 minutes.
People also describe Noel as a "girlboss" which I didn't feel at all. She cracks bad puns which first shows her confidence and later pays off in an adorable finish to the big journey. It also didn't feel like the fights were in her favor. Sure, the first bullet she dodges in the movie feels a bit much but she did ultimately lose that fight, got shot and was out of the movie for the next 40 minutes. And she didn't feel bossy! No idea where some people got that from.. At first she's calling the shots becase she's the de facto boss, then she's trying to wrangle two grown men who are fighting like they're in preschool, but after that she's on the same level as them for the rest of the movie. Her last fight was really good also! It did feel tense, but she was destined to win - not because she's a woman but becasue she's a main character in a action comedy movie that would be ruined by her death. Same thing held true for both Sam and Will fighting, but I still was invested and worried for each of them making it out ok

And then there's the villain. I'm kinda mad at this one honestly. Not like, at the movie - at people here
I can maybe understend "overrepresentation" of minorities as a something to point out - I don't think it's a good argument, but sure, when in Rome
But being mad that the villains, who are for christ's sake, RUSSIANS,
ARE AN EXCLUSIVELY WHITE GROUP
I find it hard to believe some of you can enjoy a movie

So yeah, jokes funny, women characters entertaining, message good and simple, at no point did I feel like a character could've been whiter
No woke, all good
Some of you should, as the kids say, go touch grass