On January 17th, the streaming service Netflix released the comedic spy action film «Back in Action», in which Cameron Diaz returned to acting after a 10-year hiatus. Her co-star on set was Jamie Foxx, for whom this is already the fifth project on Netflix in the last five years. In the review below, we discuss what exactly this story, aiming at another Mr. and Mrs. Smith offers the audience and whether it’s worth spending your time on the new release at all.
Pluses:
some well-filmed chases; some of the jokes can bring a slight smile to your face; it was nice to see Cameron Diaz again after a long break;
Minuses:
In all respects, it is a secondary and sterile movie, even to the point of copying certain episodes from other films; the narrative sags enormously between the initial and final action; and the fight scenes are mediocre;
«Back in Action»
Genre comedic spy action
Director Seth Gordon
Starring Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx, Glenn Close, Kyle Chandler, Andrew Scott, Jamie Demetriou, McKenna Roberts, Ryland Jackson
Premiere Netflix
Release Year 2025
Website IMDb
It’s been 15 years since former CIA agents, now a regular couple, Matt and Emily left their dangerous work, had kids, and settled in a quiet suburb of Atlanta. But one day, their cover is blown, and befuddled youths with hostile intentions pay the couple a visit. So now, the retired operatives must recall their combat skills to fend off the uninvited guests and prevent a critical technical device from falling into the wrong hands.
«Back in Action» is notably marked by the return of the striking blonde Cameron Diaz, whom viewers could see on screens over a decade ago. Even then, in 2014, the musical comedic drama «Annie», as well as the comedies «Sex Tape» and «The Other Woman» were critically panned, although two of these three projects turned out to be financially successful. Before that was Ridley Scott’s «The Counselor» Ridley Scott with a truly wild scene where the actress bedded the front windshield of a yellow Ferrari right before the embarrassed eyes of Javier Bardem’s character.
But whatever the case, after the aforementioned films, Diaz decided to take an indefinite leave, during which she managed to marry Benji Madden of the pop-punk band «Good Charlotte» and have two children. Unfortunately, her return to the big screen can hardly be called triumphant, as the aptly named new release «Back in Action» turned out to be a recycled nonsense as if scripted by ChatGPT.
Within the first 10 minutes, during a breathtaking airplane scene, it becomes clear what kind of movie awaits us — it’s best not to demand realism here. But heck with it, a light-hearted comedic action flick on a Friday on Netflix is not the grim spy passions in the style of Jason Bourne. However, the film continues to offer nothing but clichés, rusty genre tropes, and a complete void of any creative invention.
We are faced with a thoroughly tiresome cinematic trend of pseudo-comedic couples in distress, multiplied by sterile nothingness.
The problem is that in recent times, the industry has churned out these kinds of monotonous adventures aplenty. The details may vary, but the essence is the same — the main characters, a man, and a woman, stand up against villains, and ideally, the situation should have a certain context. Or, for example, intelligence agencies recruit a perplexed newbie, or someone involved is unaware of the real trade of the person next to them.
So, let’s count: in «Ghosted» Chris Evans certainly didn’t expect that his romantic interest would turn out to be a cool CIA agent; in «Role Play» David Oyelowo was shocked to learn that his wife, played by Kaley Cuoco, was a hired assassin; in «The Union» Mark Wahlberg was rapidly trained as a secret agent, joining forces with Halle Berry; in «The Family Plan» the same Wahlberg played a family-man hitman being hunted. Even Diaz herself was once in the aforementioned Evans’ shoes and got into trouble because of a spy played by Tom Cruise in «Knight and Day» (2010).
Actually, «The Family Plan» has the most in common with «Back in Action» — in both cases, the happy families have to leave their idyllic suburb and flee from bad guys. Moreover, the main points from the review of the movie with Wahlberg can easily be copy-pasted here. So if you are still not tired of such a soulless, repetitive conveyor, you can only applaud your resilience and patience.
For everyone else, there’s nothing worthwhile to catch here — it’s another standard story with a mandatory MacGuffin, James Bond-esque parties in tuxedos, terrorists named something like Baltazar Gore, and utterly boring fights of insignificant extras with invincible retired special agents.
Livening up the dreary atmosphere are two very well-shot chases with impressive camera swoops, and a delightfully inept character played by Jamie Demetriou. He somehow tries to bring comedy and in one scene, he literally mimics the actions of a limousine driver from «Die Hard» (1988).
Indeed, even at the level of individual scenes, this film exudes blatant derivativeness — just recall the episode with the motorcycle crashing into a villain, which has probably been in dozens of action films, or the dismal fate of the main villain, borrowed from an action movie like «xXx» (2002). And in one action scene, Diaz and Foxx almost grab lightsabers to fend off the futile enemy minions.
Overall, «Back in Action» conveys a message that in our times, it’s much harder to handle rebellious teenagers than sinister terrorists. And it makes it clear that if one is to return to acting, it definitely should not be for such films.
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