WHAT’S IT ABOUT
Former CIA spies Emily and Matt are pulled back into espionage after their secret identities are exposed.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
Netflix’s “Back in Action” brings Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz together as Matt and Emily Reynolds – suburban parents hiding a pretty wild secret: they used to be secret agents. Their quiet life gets turned upside down when their daughter Alice (McKenna Roberts) decides to rebel and sneak out to a club one night. Like any concerned parents, they follow her, but things go sideways when Emily ends up in a viral video tagged “BOOMERS WRECK DANCE PARTY.” This social media disaster catches the attention of their old boss, Chuck (Kyle Chandler), and suddenly, the whole family, including their son Leo (Rylan Jackson), finds themselves running from their past. The movie really should’ve been a home run with this cast. I mean, who doesn’t love seeing Cameron Diaz back on screen after taking an 11-year break? And pairing her with Jamie Foxx sounds like a recipe for success, right? Unfortunately, something just doesn’t click. Their usual charm and energy feel muted, and they move through scenes like they’re reading instructions rather than playing characters. That said, we should cut Foxx some slack – he dealt with some serious health issues during filming, and the fact that he completed the movie at all is pretty remarkable. Director Seth Gordon tries to juggle family drama with spy thriller elements but ends up dropping both balls. The movie can’t decide if it wants to be a heartfelt story about a family reconnecting or an action-packed espionage adventure. Instead, it sort of stumbles around in the middle, not really succeeding at either. The kids, who should be adding emotional weight to the story, just come off as annoying rather than sympathetic. Seriously, would it have killed the writers to make them likable enough for us to care about what happens to them? The action sequences look slick and expensive, but they’re so over-the-top ridiculous that it’s hard to stay invested. There’s this scene where a plane crashes into a mountain, and everyone just walks away like they bumped into a parking meter. I get that action movies require some suspension of disbelief, but come on! Even Andrew Scott, who shows up briefly and usually elevates everything he’s in, can’t save the movie from feeling like it was assembled from a “How to Make a Spy Movie” kit bought at Target. Speaking of the plot, it feels like the writers threw darts at a board of spy movie clichés and just went with whatever they hit. Secret agents? Check. Family in danger? Check. Running from mysterious bad guys? Double check. The problem is, we’ve seen all of this before and done better. The jokes land with all the grace of a cement truck, the action scenes feel more routine than thrilling, and every plot twist is so predictable you could set your watch by it. The cinematography is admittedly pretty good, with some well-shot chase scenes and fight sequences that at least look nice, even if they don’t get your heart racing. The movie also has decent production value – Netflix clearly spent some money here. But it’s like buying an expensive frame for a mediocre picture – it might look nice at first glance, but that doesn’t make the content any better. Is it worth watching on a lazy weekend when you’re scrolling through Netflix with a pizza and nothing better to do? Sure, I guess. The movie isn’t awful – it’s just aggressively average. It’s like those plain potato chips at the bottom of the variety pack – they’ll do if you’re hungry enough, but nobody’s reaching for them first. Even with the star power of Foxx and Diaz, “Back in Action” ends up being just another forgettable entry in Netflix’s ever-growing library of “yeah, that was fine” movies. It’s the kind of film that you might watch while folding laundry, but by the time you finish putting away your socks, you’ve already forgotten most of what happened.
OUR RATING – A CLICHÉ DRIVEN 3