Apple TV's new action-comedy "Mayday" takes a well-known setup and has an absolute blast with it. If you haven't yet seen the massively popular flick, Ryan Reynolds plays a hotshot U.S. Navy pilot who ends up stranded behind enemy lines in the Soviet Union in 1987, and Kenneth Branagh is a gruff ex-KGB agent who reluctantly helps him get home.
It's a Cold War spy thriller played mostly for laughs, powered by the odd-couple chemistry between its two stars, that's earned a respectable 83% score on Rotten Tomatoes. If you tore through it and want more in the same vein, thankfully, you've got options. In fact, there are plenty if you're ready to take a walk through the decades.
Whether you're into an enemies-to-partners story or a buddy cop with familiar leads, here are three action comedies that scratch the same itch. For fun, try watching them all in chronological order when they were released to see how the timeless formula nails it with every single movie.
'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' (2015'
![The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - Official Trailer 1 [HD] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4K4Iv_N9Nno/maxresdefault.jpg)
Guy Ritchie's stylish spy caper drops you into 1963, at the height of the Cold War, and forces a charming CIA agent (Henry Cavill) and a hot-tempered KGB operative (Armie Hammer) to work together against a common enemy. Like Reynolds and Branagh, the two spend nearly as much time needling each other as they do dodging bullets, and the fun is all in watching these sworn enemies have to work together as a team.
It's got the same blend of espionage, retro Cold War intrigue and dry humor you'll find in "Mayday", all dressed up in some of the best-looking suits you'll ever see on screen. And for all you Cavill fans out there, he's in rare form in this one.
Buy or rent on Prime Video
'The Nice Guys' (2016)
![The Nice Guys - Main Trailer [HD] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/GQR5zsLHbYw/maxresdefault.jpg)
Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling play a hired enforcer and a hapless private eye who get stuck working the same case in 1977 Los Angeles. The entire movie sees them bickering their way through a plot that keeps getting bloodier and funnier.
Writer-director Shane Black more or less wrote the blueprint "Mayday" is building from. It's two guys who can't stand each other, thrown together, cracking jokes while the bodies pile up. It's a bit sharper in terms of humor and slightly more violent than "Mayday," but the odd-couple energy is the same vibe. Plus, it's perfect for all the Gosling fans out there coming off of "Project Hail Mary."
Buy or rent on Prime Video
'Spies Like Us' (1985)
This classic comedy can't be beat, especially if you love slapstick and sardonic humor. Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd play two bumbling government agents recruited as decoy spies and dropped into the Soviet Union, where they're hopelessly out of their depth.
Admittedly, it's much sillier than "Mayday," and it's a straight comedy rather than an action movie, but the jokes are still the same. You've got two hapless Americans stranded deep in enemy territory, trying to bluff their way home. Directed by John Landis, it's a nostalgic, endlessly quotable good time, and it pairs especially well with "Mayday" as a fun double feature, with both movies straight out of the '80s, in and out of universe.
Buy or rent on Prime Video
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