Prime Video believes that what Americans crave most at this particular moment in history are stories about United States presidents who have morals, value allies and global partnerships, and kick ass—even if they’re former celebrities.

Arriving two months after the Kamala Harris-as-Rambo fantasy G20, Heads of State imagines the country’s commander-in-chief as an international movie star whose brawn isn’t as impressive as his staunch conviction that Western democracies are mightiest when they’re united in a common goal of bettering the world. Considering that its saga also involves America First isolationists and anti-NATO villains, Ilya Naishuller’s film, out July 2, isn’t just timely; it plays as a stinging rah-rah rebuke to Donald Trump and his MAGA movement.

Politics are front-and-center in Heads of State, and yet Naishuller’s follow-up to 2021’s Nobody is, first and foremost, a globetrotting action comedy whose primary selling point is the chemistry of headliners (and The Suicide Squadcastmates) Idris Elba and John Cena.

Elba is Sam Clarke, the gruff veteran UK Prime Minister, who’s less than thrilled about having to endure a visit from newly elected American President Will Derringer, whose main claim to fame is an action-cinema franchise called Water Cobra whose hero is known as “The Venom in the Denim.”

Sam is a stern politician with a straight-and-narrow approach to governing, whereas Will is a cheery and outgoing entertainer who wants to be taken seriously and has faith in his ability to get things done through charisma and camaraderie. Already at odds over the fact that Sam had a public fish-and-chips meal with Will’s campaign rival, the duo immediately gets off on the wrong foot, and their bickering rarely relents over the course of their ensuing odyssey.

In a prologue, a joint MI6-CIA operation to apprehend an evil arms dealer (Paddy Considine) goes sideways, resulting in everyone’s death including, it seems, super-agent Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas). Having escaped capture, Considine’s baddie takes aim at Sam and Will during their contentious trip aboard Air Force One, using an inside-man assassin and fighter plane to take down the flying fortress, albeit not before Will and Sam parachute out of the flaming craft and into Belarus.

There, they strive to reach a Polish safehouse, along the way verbally jousting with each other and facing off against a cadre of belligerent locals. To an even greater extent than the mid-air siege, this skirmish affords director Naishuller—no stranger to aesthetic showmanship, as evidenced by his first-person beat-’em-up Hardcore Henry—an opportunity to indulge in cheeky visuals, the finest of which is a shot from inside a combatant’s mouth in which both Cena and Elba are framed in the guy’s missing tooth gap.

Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, and Harrison Query’s script leans heavily into its stars’ squabbling, and if their repartee is never truly inspired, it’s jovial enough to keep the material loose and amusing, such as Sam’s repeated barbs about Will sucking on a sheep’s nipple.

Elba is right at home playing an imposing, no-nonsense bigwig who doesn’t suffer fools lightly, just as Cena is in his element as a nominal He-Man whose buff size belies his clownishness. The WWE icon is best when he uses his physique as a foil for bumbling cartoon antics, and he strikes the ideal balance in Heads of State between resembling a guy who can rip a tree out of the ground with his bare hands and being a people-pleasing do-gooder who’s more “gym strong” than “strong strong.”

Whether it’s Will making a joke about Sam throwing a shoe at him or admitting, proudly, that his full initials are WMD, Heads of State mines politics for silliness. It additionally sets up a frustrated romance between Sam and Noel, the latter of whom turns up, alive, to save the duo’s hide and help them unravel a conspiracy.

Chopra Jonas is a welcome addition to the film’s mix, rolling her eyes at her male cohorts while sharing reasonable sparks with Elba, and she’s relied upon to handle the lion’s share of the fighting and killing—a duty which she handles with fierce, agile aplomb. The actress is a compelling presence who’s rarely found a suitable vehicle for her talents, and though this streaming feature won’t radically alter her fortunes, it fits her like a glove, allowing her to be at once funny, ferocious, and alluring.

In the wake of Will and Sam’s apparent demises, the United States elevates Will’s vice president (Carla Gugino) to the big seat at the Resolute desk. Given that she and Will’s right-hand woman (Sarah Niles) are the only two main characters with the stature to be the mole working with Considine’s scoundrel, Heads of State proves short on narrative surprise.

Nonetheless, it makes up for that with a collection of likable character actors doing solid work in supporting parts, be it Stephen Root as the geek who aids Considine’s mastermind in his plot to take over America’s techno-infrastructure, or Jack Quaid as a U.S. safehouse guardian who makes a goofy first impression courtesy of his Hawaiian shirt and Will fandom, and then exhibits a flair for mayhem which he scores to the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage.”

Heads of State boasts the flat, texture-less look of so many streaming offerings, but Naishuller knows how to devise and execute large-scale set pieces that are at once complex, brutal, and humorous. From a prolonged backwards car chase through the streets of Italy to a climactic bit of snappy gunplay performed by Elba, the film doesn’t skimp on clever combat, some of it enhanced by clean and punchy dips into slow-motion.

Considine isn’t given much to do other than scowl and sneer as the material’s generic rogue, yet he’s game to wield a firearm and radiate obsessive menace and, opposite Elba and Cena, he provides the proceedings with requisite star-power balance.