Back in Action Review – Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx Slum in Netflix Comedy | Cameron Diaz

TThe last time we saw Cameron Diaz on screen was way back in 2014. The star, who had been such a magnetic force in Being John Malkovich, My Best Friend’s Wedding and There’s Something About Mary, had checked out with a trio of pale production line films, that represented what we had grimly come to expect at that point in her career. Diaz, once easily moving between dark and light as well as big and small, had smoothed out some of his more interesting edges to become one of the industry’s highest-paid but most boringly unchallenged stars. That year saw her lose in teen comedies The Other Woman and Sex Tape, before being horribly miscast in a silly remake of Annie, and not long after she chose to retire, perhaps feeling equally dismal about the quality of her films , like those of us who are stuck. looking at them.

News of her resurgence, after a decade focused on family and an organic wine brand, came at an opportune time as the industry is still struggling to find newer and younger but equally bright movie stars to take over from those who came before. Many from that era have found success on Netflix, from Adam Sandler and Jennifer Lopez to Jessica Alba, so it seemed like the smoothest way for Diaz to re-engage with her fans by teaming up with her Annie co-star Jamie Foxx for a broad appeal action comedy. It’s an easy way back, a low-effort comeback vehicle literally called Back in Action, but the film is only half a victory at best. While it may prove that Diaz still possesses that same special magic, it also shows that she should be far more choosy about how she chooses to share it.

However, she is far from alone in believing that action comedy is the best way. Recent star couples such as Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling, John Cena and Alison Brie, Kaley Cuoco and David Oyelowo, Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg and then Michelle Monaghan and Mark Wahlberg have all seen the appeal as well, though critics have struggled to agree (only Gosling and Blunt achieved a fresh rating with The Fall Guy). The formula – joke, shoot, kiss, repeat – has become rather irritating for those of us still awake and alert with the choice to kiss the surface pleasures of attractive stars so that everything around them suffers. If only a fraction of the big star salaries had been taken away for a screenplay doctor, then maybe we could have had a lot of fun here…

As it stands, the mostly rather rote Back in Action is best seen as just an excuse to see Diaz perform again, and she’s as charming as ever, especially alongside Foxx, with whom she shares a pleasant chemistry with. They play a couple who give up their exciting lives as spies for the safe predictability of suburbia when they become pregnant. But they get sucked in again when their cover is blown, and this time their kids come along for the ride.

Director Seth Gordon is no stranger to mediocre action comedies, having been involved in the writing of The Lost City while directing both Identity Thief and Baywatch, and as in those films, there is no elegance in how the two genres are clumsily smashed together. Seeing a couple and then a family casually banter about screen time or school pickup while involved in a car chase or shooting isn’t enough to check either box. Most of the dutifully choreographed action sequences are also soundtracked by discordant, wink-wink love songs, like Etta James’s At Last or Nat King Cole’s LOVE, in such a smug and familiar way that it all starts to feel a bit like parody, as we watching Action Comedy Movie. The action here is little more serviceable (if never quite exciting) than the comedy, with a script from Gordon and Neighbors co-writer Brendan O’Brien that settles for tired family sitcom shtick – lazy, exclamation point-heavy one-liners that miss all the mark completely, no matter what how hard the two stars try.

While Diaz and Foxx may be acquitting themselves without any real shame, their supporting cast isn’t quite so lucky. Andrew Scott comes off easiest, seeming just a bit lost as the signature big bad, but Glenn Close, as Diaz’s British mother, and her love interest, played bizarrely by Jamie Demetriou, aren’t quite so lucky as they both go super-sized with go-for-broke pantomime performances that aim to steal scenes but leave us with second-hand embarrassments.

One hopes this is just what Diaz needed to warm up again, and her next, a role alongside Keanu Reeves in the dark Hollywood comedy Outcome should be more rewarding. Back in Action takes her back in time.