When navy pilot Troy Kelly (Ryan Reynolds) is shot down during a reconnaissance mission in Soviet airspace, he is forced to find his own way out of enemy territory. Luckily for Troy, he finds, or is at least found by the rather capable Nicky (Kenneth Branagh), who not only wants to help, he's a fan. If buddy comedies live and die by their central pairings - which, obviously they do - then Mayday  is one that lives. Much like the characters they play, the teaming of Reynolds with Branagh is an unlikely one. Or at least unexpected. But that's probably why it works so well. While Reynolds plays it fairly safe with a toned down take on his usual fast-talking smart mouth (very much a winning formula), Branagh returns to the accent he used in  Tenet  and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit . The thing is; that accent is the only thing Nick has in common with those other less sympathetic characters. In fact, in many ways, the friendly woodsman who finds the downed pilot is arguably the mo...

  Will Smith plays Doctor Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist who discovered a recurring form of dementia in American Football players caused by repeated blows to the head. Doctor Omalu calls this condition Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), I don't pretend to understand it but basically the repeated blows to the head cause large accumulations of tau protein in the brain which affects mood, emotions and executive functions. When attempting to present his findings, Doctor Omalu was met with considerable pressure at the hands of the NFL who went to great lengths to avoid or dispute his work. The movie begins with Doctor Omalu's initial discovery in 2002. While working as a forensic pathologist for the Allegheny County Coroners Office in Pennsylvania he performed an autopsy on a former player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, discovering severe brain damage. Over the next few years Doctor Omalu continued to study CTE in order to create awareness, we see the effect this ...