Back in Action is the sort of movie that makes you question the very definition of the art form. What qualifies as a movie in the first place? Something with actors? Scenes? Music? Perhaps a story? Technically, Back in Action has all these ingredients, often sprinkled with a heavy hand. And yet, if it were shown to cinema’s high priest Martin Scorsese, he’d spontaneously combust. Billed as Cameron Diaz’s much-awaited comeback after a decade-long hiatus from acting, Back in Action also features the always magnetic Jamie Foxx. So far, so good. But it is directed by Seth Gordon — otherwise known the man responsible for introducing Priyanka Chopra to mainstream Hollywood cinema with Baywatch.
Back in Action is just as sloppy as that film, which wasted the undeniable charms of its cast on a script so poor that even an industry desperate for franchises threw its hands up in defeat. Diaz and Foxx play Emily and Matt, secret agents who discover, in the middle of a high-stakes mission, that they are about to become parents. They haven’t known each other too long, but they have a good feeling about each other. Presumed dead after the mission, they decide to shed their past identities and build new lives for themselves, swapping danger with drudgery and murder with mundanity.
Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz in a still from Back in Action. (Photo: Netflix)
Years pass, and the digital de-ageing that was so obvious in the opening set-piece is done away with. Emily and Matt are now living a peaceful suburban existence with their two children — a 14-year-old daughter named Alice, and a 12-year-old son named Leo. Much of the film’s next 10 minutes are devoted to dull comedic scenes in which Emily and Matt navigate the difficulty of raising two young kids by deploying every espionage tactic in their arsenal. When Alice leaves home one evening on the pretext of a study date with her best friend, they discover that she has secretly gone to a club, where she is surrounded by predatory men and potent beverages.
They stage an extraction, but in the process, have their covers blown when a couple of club-goers record videos of them clobbering some burly men. Suddenly, they find themselves on the run from the same villains they’d fooled into believing that they were dead. Along with their kids, Emily and Matt flee across the pond to England, to the only person who can help them out: her estranged mother, Ginny. Played by Glenn Close — that’s two Oscar-winners in the central cast, for those keeping score at home — Ginny is a spy herself, but was largely absent from her daughter’s life growing up. This prompted Emily to pull a Yuvraj Singh and keep her mom away from her kids.
Foxx and Diaz have polished innumerable poor scripts in their day, but there’s only so much they can accomplish with charm alone. Many of the jokes that they’re given land with a thud so loud that a Kannada sound designer might take notice. The action, which is peppered at algorithmically mandated intervals, is straight out of something like The Gray Man or Red Notice — the nadir of streaming era tent poles. At this point, it’s unoriginal to joke about film scripts being coughed up by AI, but Back in Action leaves you with no choice but to make this tired observation. One early scene, in which Emily and Matt confiscate their kids’ phones in an effort to evade surveillance, is almost identical to a scene in the recent Mark Wahlberg movie The Family Plan.
In fact, Back in Action doesn’t deserve a more thoughtful critique. It doesn’t seem to value its audience’s time and intelligence. But alas, at least one of us in this toxic relationship needs to be sincere. Along the way, the movie attempts to comment on parenting and the generational divide, but it isn’t an exaggeration to say that even Beverly Hills Cop: Axl F had more interesting things to say about both these ideas. For instance, Back in Action wants to present Emily and Matt’s kids as independent-minded and wise — they’re clued-in and tech savvy — but the script constantly forces them to behave like two-year-olds in an effort to propel the plot.
Back in Action also features Oscar-winner Glenn Close.
Read more – The Union movie review: Mark Wahlberg, Halle Berry’s action-comedy has no heat whatsoever
If the instinct of writers is to conveniently turn children into inanimate objects just to avoid plot holes of their own design, it’s a cause for concern. It’s no different to the same writers turning women into sacrificial lambs or lampposts in other films. Back in Action will likely top the Netflix charts for the next couple of weeks, until another forgettable action film comes along. In a few months’ time, the streamer will parade its viewership figures and brag about its ‘success’. And when that happens, your first reaction will likely be, “Wait, have I seen this movie?”
Back in Action
Director – Seth Gordon
Cast – Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Glenn Close, Kyle Chandler, Andrew Scott
Rating – 1.5/5
Discover the Benefits of Our Subscription!
Stay informed with access to our award-winning journalism.
Avoid misinformation with trusted, accurate reporting.
Make smarter decisions with insights that matter.
Choose your subscription package
