PENSION REFORM
The last time Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx were on screen together was in one of the best films of their careers: Sunday Hellor the stadium gladiators according to Oliver Stone. It was in 1999, and since then water has flowed under the bridges for these two spawns. He took off by winning an Oscar and working with Michael Mann and Quentin Tarantino, and she continued her journey with Martin Scorsese, Charlie and his funny ladies and a load of comedies, before put his career on pause in 2018.
But retirements in Hollywood are like alliances on the left in politics: they almost never last. The question then is to know what can motivate artists to bring out their most beautiful smiles to return to service. Before the inevitable Shrek 5 (planned for 2026) and comedy Outcome directed by Jonah Hill and starring Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz chose Back in Action. For what ? Because the title was fitting, Jamie Foxx is his friend, and it was well paid. Because otherwise there is no plausible explanation.
“Imagined” by director Seth Gordon (How to kill your boss?, A la carte scam, Baywatch) and his co-writer Brendan O’Brien (Our worst neighbors, Our worst neighbors 2, Ninja Turtles : Teenage Years), Back in Action is a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy. Two former CIA agents hang up their lives to start a family, but years later, they are forced to go back on a mission to save the world and their two kids. No need to list them, it brings to mind a few dozen films of the same genre. And even the talent of Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx cannot save this thing from oblivion and instant boredom.
DIAZ IN TUNE
This is perhaps the saddest thing: wasting Cameron Diaz’s talent in such a tasteless product. Labeled godiche since its beginnings in The Maskthe actress has played it brilliantly throughout her career, with a taste for schoolboy comedy, grotesque characters and physical gags. Of Mary at all costs has Teases! passing through A less ordinary life et Bad Teachershe has mastered the exercise to perfectioneven if it sometimes means being the only thing to save from otherwise mediocre films.
In the grandiose Charlie and his funny ladiesshe had added the action string to her comic bow, touching heights of magnificent ridicule with impressive ease. That’s why Back in Action made sense, on paper: Cameron Diaz knows how to be funny when punching people. The film even seems to go into this area from its intro, with the absurd gadget of a perfume that Charlie’s trio would not have denied. The rest of the prologue is almost a good surprise, with a little escalation of the chaos that precipitates a cartoon disaster.
Back in Action will never again be as fun as in this intro, which says a lot about the poverty of the film. And even if Cameron Diaz is less tart than Jamie Foxx, the main argument of this action comedy (their duo of parents-lovers-spies) quickly falls apart, the fault of an infinitely banal scenario. It’s very simple: no gag, no joke, no idea not already seen and reviewed elsewhere. And since Seth Gordon’s direction has as much interest as a glass of lukewarm water in a plastic cup, Back in Action strings together small scenes without ever taking advantage of the situations or the actors.
-
BACK IN “ACTION”, APPARENTLY
Seth Gordon not having no sense of comic timing (the extremely lame character of Jamie Demetriou, whose presence will at least make fans of Fleabag), no one will be surprised to see that it is also a handle on the action side. Cobbled together around yet another high-tech bauble capable of taking control of the world because it was high time that someone finally warned about the potential dangers of technology, the plot carries its characters around like Jason Bourne version Spy Kidswith zero surprises in the blabla/fight/blabla/fight tempo.
Eventually, when you’re in a good mood, there are some little visually amusing ideas, like neon shots in the face or the improvised flamethrower in the gas station (… which recalls a scene with Drew Barrymore in Charlie’s Angels: The Angels are unleashed well, well). Second-unit director JJ Perry (past on John Wick and a few Fast & Furious) may have something to do with it, especially since the team at least avoided the grayish formatting and the overflow of green backgrounds.
But since all of this was cut, edited, staged and set to music without the slightest ambition, Back in Action remains well and truly cloistered in the generic Netflix production box. Andrew Scott and Kyle Chandler fidget around to pretend there’s anything to the story, the dialogue keeps it all cute (” We didn’t kill these people! » said the mother, after blowing up the face of a bunch of bad guys), and the sacrosanct family is reconciled as in a fortune telling adventure. Joséphine, guardian angel.
It’s always the sweet irony of these things that exploit the fear of technology: they look like they were written by an AI. And there’s nothing fanciful about it anymore since several companies are currently “training” their little virtual robots based on the scenarios of thousands of films and series. If it gives Back in Action in spades, it could be great.
Could it have been worse? Yes. Perhaps we could have mentioned the turnip Agent Stonewhere Glenn Close was already there in a mini-role (if you need help Glenn, send us a signal). We still need to remember this thing. But it could have been so less worse with a minimum of work it becomes desperate. Especially when the end of Back in Action dares to tease a sequel that is supposed to make you want it. This is another obligation of big Netflix productions thought in reverse, apparently.
Back in Action is available on Netflix since January 17, 2025
