John Cena & Idris Elba in Amazon Buddy Comedy

An alternate history with different world leaders would be great escapism at the moment. Heads of State isn’t that, despite a here-and-there subtext that turns out to be more pointedly political than you see coming. The film, from Nobody director Ilya Naishuller, is a typical action-comedy that benefits greatly from its two stars, and slightly from their unexpected characters, before plunging fast into explosive but trite set-pieces. You’ve never before seen John Cena as the American president and Idris Elba as the British prime minister, but by the end you may feel as if you’ve seen it all before.

Casting is everything here, and the film aces that part. Cena plays a politician who is all showbiz and Elba is the statesman who has experience and respect. Both are fun to watch, as they approach the roles with more relish than the drab screenplay provides. Cena’s Will Derringer is a movie star who has recently gone from the hit franchise Water Cobra to president in one quick swoop with the campaign promise “We did it at the box office and now we’ll do it in the Oval Office.”

He is clearly not Donald Trump, though. Derringer is a warm and fuzzy family man behind the scenes, a well-intentioned guy in over his head. Cena skillfully avoids playing him with any real-life political overtones.

Elba is Cambridge-educated Sam Clarke, who has been prime minister for six years and now has bad poll numbers, which he’ll take in the interest of serving his country’s best interests. He disdains the president for his image-is-everything approach to politics and for his tendency to go rogue, which he maddeningly does at a joint press conference when Derringer stops off in London on the way to a NATO meeting. Elba has some of the better early lines, which work only because they are delivered in an effective, high-dudgeon tone. “You’re the Commander-in-Chief, you’re not some DJ in Vegas,” he snaps at Derringer.

The leaders reluctantly agree to a PR scheme plotted by their advisors, sharply played by Sarah Niles on the American side and Richard Coyle on the British. She seems commonsensical, he seems cagey, but they’re both mere conveniences for the plot. The president and prime minister reluctantly agree to take a short trip together on Air Force One in a fake show of solidarity.

That’s when the action kicks in with an attack by assassins masquerading as flight attendants. (Better not to think about the American security failure behind that.) There is stabbing and shooting before Derringer and Clarke parachute out of the flaming plane together. The hapless president’s parachute gets stuck in a tree and the savvy prime minister gets him down.

Derringer wants to call his wife so she knows he’s safe, but Clarke knows that they are targets and their phones are compromised so they can’t call. From there, the funny-silly innovation of having world leaders as the mismatched buddies fades away. It’s basically all action with the occasional dollop of plot that leads the rivals, inevitably, to become friends as they hitch a ride from Belarus to Warsaw and beyond while the world presumes they’re dead.

Naishuller’s action is solidly executed but predictable, as the men punch and shoot their way out of trouble while making their way to a fraught NATO meeting in time to announce they’re alive and save the day. The highlight is a car chase with Clarke driving the presidential limo, The Beast, in reverse through narrow streets. More often there are rocket launchers and leaps from balconies in which no one ever gets hurt.

And there is even more presumed-dead business in the creaky plot the action hangs on. The film opens with a massive food fight in Spain, the annual La Tomatina festival in which a whole town throws tomatoes at each other. It’s being covered by a television journalist, Noel (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), who is actually an MI6 agent on a joint operation with the CIA. The mission goes wrong, blood mixes with the smashed tomatoes, then Noel disappears for much of the film — presumed not-alive. Toward the end she returns and proves to be more tactical and tougher than either of the men, although for all three stars the big action finale might as well be a game of Spot the Stunt Person (they are conspicuously everywhere).

In smaller parts, Paddy Considine plays an arms dealer Noel is after, Jack Quaid has a comic role as a CIA station chief and Carla Gugino has a dramatic role as the vice president.

In a late scene that is almost a throwaway, the true villain is revealed. That character is intent on destroying NATO and unsettling the world, and gives an isolationist speech that includes the phrase “America First.” The scene comes out of nowhere and emphasizes that Derringer is not Trump while overtly placing one of Trump’s main slogans on the side of the devil. The quick scene is very much not the point of Heads of State, but you might as well take what you can get in this sporadically diverting film.