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Back In Action centres around two former CIA operatives who went rogue, 15 years earlier, after ensuring some bad guys didn’t get a cyberterrorist weapon called The Key – in a reasonably engaging opening scene involving a plane crash and the line “Your inner thighs saved my life“, before leaving the service for good.
I did wonder why Cameron Diaz‘s (Being John Malkovich) Emily was using a pregnancy test kit… at 52? That’s the same age as me! Ok, maybe “15 years ago” makes her technically 37. Still, in the present day, they have two teenage kids, and since it’s 2025, it’s the girl who plays football.
It’s also at this juncture where they fill time with a lot of nonsense family stuff, such as daughter Alice (McKenna Roberts – Skyscraper) going to a nightclub despite being underage, and the subsequent altercation leads to Emily wanting to get back to her old job. However, the fight soon comes to them, as when an old friend, Chuck (Kyle Chandler – Godzilla Vs Kong), tries to warn them, that’s when the baddies surface, and they want the Key, as does MI6 bigwig Baron (Andrew Scott – Ripley, All Of Us Strangers).
Cue a trip to jolly old England, where Emily’s mother, Ginny (Glenn Close – Hillbilly Elegy), lives in a mansion with toyboy Nigel (Jamie Demetriou as Jamie Demetriou, as usual), since that’s where hubby Matt (Jamie Foxx) hid the Key, all those years ago.
Alas, Back In Action has all been done better in films like Mr And Mrs Smith. Then again, we never had a sequel to the ‘Brangelina’ actioner because they stated they didn’t want to do the obvious of having the parents going around with kids in tow… which is exactly what we have here.
Basically, there’s nothing in this that we’ve not seen before, And at almost two hours, it’s way too long. Should be 100 minutes tops for this sort of film. I really can’t imagine who saw the script for this and gave it the greenlight! On the plus side, it’s just 102 minutes before the end credits begin.
However, I can’t even say it’s “so bad it’s good”, because it’s not. It’s just existing, and everyone onscreen is taking a busman’s holiday on this one. If you want an actioner with Cameron Diaz, where the plot also makes no sense, but the action scenes are great, watch 2010’s Knight And Day, where she co-stars with Tom Cruise; and if you want something decent with Jamie Foxx, go for 2017’s Baby Driver.
Foxx and Diaz previously starred in 2014’s remake of Annie, after which Diaz retired from acting, so in a way, she is ‘back in action’, although the stunts are either performed by stunt people or CGI. As such, when a baddie’s car flips over, you know it’ll all be CGI, whereas if it was a Michael Bay movie, he’d use real cars!
And I would say this script feels like it was written by AI, but I’m sure even ChatCPT could pull a better script out of its rear expansion port than what we have here.
Oh, Back In Action also teases a potential sequel. Please don’t.
How about something original? Last weekend, I saw A Real Pain, in the cinema with Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg. Absolutely bloody amazing, and only 90 minutes! There’s so much better cinema with more indie fare like that and 2024’s American Fiction and The Holdovers.
There is NO mid- or post-credits scene.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Back In Action is on Netflix from today, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 114 minutes
Release date: January 17th 2025
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Score: 2/10
Director: Seth Gordon
Producers: Beau Bauman, Peter Chernin, Seth Gordon, Sharla Sumpter Bridgett, Jenno Topping
Screenplay: Seth Gordon, Brendan O’Brien
Music: Christopher Lennertz
Cast:
Matt: Jamie Foxx
Emily: Cameron Diaz
Alice: McKenna Roberts
Leo: Rylan Jackson
Chuck: Kyle Chandler
Ginny: Glenn Close
Nigel: Jamie Demetriou
Baron: Andrew Scott
Wendy: Fola Evans-Akingbola
Balthazar Gor: Robert Besta
Coach Chris: Bashir Salahuddin
Dylan: Tom Brittney
Tyler: Ben VanderMey
Daphne: Jude Mack
MI6 Agent Obasi: Tobi Bamtefa
Annalise: Leela Owen
James: Cruz Hadley
Craig: Zion James
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.