Back in Action Review

The casting of Jamie Foxx, and Cameron Diaz especially, go a long way in keeping Netflix's next franchise wannabe "Back in Action" from being a complete dud; but a pair of effervescent leads can only keep it firmly afloat in "disposable" territory. And that's OK, if it's mid-January, too chilly to go outside and contribute anything to society.

Diaz and Foxx play Emily and Matt, who would look like any other suburban parents had the film not opened to an extended chase over its MacGuffin, a key that can control all sorts of electrical things. Like any James Bond entry, they first infiltrate a terrorist party, escape to a plane only for it to crash, the device seemingly lost in the snowy mountainside. Only it's not nearly as exciting or innovative.

But look at me, I'm getting ahead of myself- that scene was, like, fifteen years ago, and the couple now have two kids, watch HGTV, coach soccer and drive a minivan. Emily pines for her daughter's affection (McKenna Roberts), a fourteen year old who the two catch, alcohol in hand, at some 18 years and over club, and in a moment of blind rage, the former spies take out the creepy men who were pawing over their underage daughter. A bystander and their phone was all it takes for their old enemies, and allies, to track their whereabouts, all looking for this "key," so the family leave the states for London.

Why London? So we can force in an extended cameo by Glenn Close, as Emily's mother Ginny, but no, I swear there's a narrative reason for this outside the "globe-trotting" requisites made genre canon by Eon's adaptations of Ian Fleming's famous operative. See, the bad guys (and good guys) all think our heroes have the device, and, spoiler alert, they do. Or at least did, Matt having hid it at his mother-in-laws before she was legally related to him, unbeknownst to anyone else. 

The rest is your usual action movie stuff, with double-crosses, red herrings and plenty of PG-13 violence. But so what? Just because you have some explosions, gunplay and fights doesn't mean you have an action movie worth seeing. Director Seth Gordon, who also co-wrote it alongside Brendan O'Brien, competently enough films the fisticuffs, things only occasionally looking like janky green screen, but it's all so mindless and meandering. Not bad, just without reason outside the trappings of billing itself an "action spy comedy."

As for the comedy, things fare better, no doubt elevated by Diaz and Foxx's natural comedic timing; the script has a few truly funny scenes, but they're throwaway bits independent from the gobbledygook espionage business. And I can't help but wonder how much male writer/directors know about a mother/daughters relationships, but maybe I'm reading too much into things.

But the best thing here is the return of Cameron Diaz; it's so good to see her back, er, in action, and she has such genuine chemistry with Foxx that you wish this was some silly comedy about former spies, not an action spy movie with some comedy.