Mayday: Easygoing Cold War thrills

Mayday (2026) • View trailer3.5 stars (out of five); rated PG-13, for violence, action and fleeting profanityAvailable via: Apple TV+By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 9.13.26This film’s lighthearted, mismatched-buddies-in-peril tone notwithstanding, co-directors and writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein deserve credit for inserting a strong message relevant to our times: Don’t let government propaganda and assumptions about “the other” interfere with our individual ability to judge people based on their character and behavior. Evading KGB pursuers was hard enough when Nikolai (Kenneth Branagh, center) hadonly his new friend Troy (Ryan Reynolds) to worry about .... but matters get even moreintense when Nikolai's daughter (Maria Bakalova) enters the picture.The year is 1987, toward the end of the U.S./Soviet Cold War. Despite U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s initial belief that the Soviets were dangerous and immoral, his tone has softened following Mikhail…