Flash forward a decade and a half, and they are raising a 14-year-old, Alice (McKenna Roberts), who hates them, and a 12-year-old, Leo (Rylan Jackson), who is marginally more compliant and a big tech nerd. When Matt and Emily violently retrieve the underage Alice from a nightclub, footage of them goes viral (“boomers wreck dance party”) and blows their cover. Soon their awakened enemies force them to jump to Britain, where a slimy agent (Andrew Scott) is ready to pounce, and Emily will be forced to make amends with her estranged mother, Ginny, also a retired operative. The revelation of the actress playing Ginny warranted a more eccentric surprise than Glenn Close.
With characters who seem designed as place holders for a future franchise rather than necessities in this one (the comedian Jamie Demetriou turns up as Ginny’s sheepish trainee-paramour), “Back in Action” has a better cast than its (often mawkish) writing earns. Mostly, the familiarity takes its toll. A wrong-direction car chase is a long way from “To Live and Die in L.A.,” notwithstanding the choice to add a grenade made from Diet Coke and Mentos. And somehow after taking a plunge in the Thames, Alice and Leo are completely dry upon rescue. Evidently the person who coined the title wasn’t the only one who couldn’t be bothered.
Back in Action
Rated PG-13. Snooping parents, disobedient children. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. Watch on Netflix.
