Back in Action Parent Guide

Two of the CIA’s top agents, Emily (Cameron Diaz) and Matt (Jamie Foxx), are on a mission to protect a powerful cyberterrorism key when Emily discovers she’s pregnant. As the mission turns sour, the couple decide to fake their deaths so they can have a normal life. Fifteen years later, they’re living quietly in the suburbs with their kids Alice (McKenna Roberts) and Leo (Rylan Jackson) when their cover is unexpectedly blown. With MI6 and Belarusian terrorists on their trail, Emily and Matt need to find the key they hid all those years ago, get it back to the CIA - and do it all with their kids in tow.

“Spy with a family” is an incredibly overdone premise. I could have written this review without watching the film and been completely accurate. Every story beat is predictable and expected, permeating the movie with a boring familiarity. I started checking the clock about ten minutes in and proceeded to do so ever three to four minutes from then on. Spy flicks shouldn’t be boring, but this one sure is.

The film never seems to land on a tone, which doesn’t help the uneven pacing and tired screenplay. It can’t seem to decide if it wants to be a comedy or a violent action flick, instead oscillating between the two in a confusing mix of surprisingly graphic violence and stale jokes. The end result feels like a computer was fed a bunch of family spy movie scripts and asked to spit out a composite screenplay that carefully avoids any hint of originality.

What’s truly shocking to me is the high caliber of some of the cast attached to this generic script. There’s been a lot of buzz about Cameron Diaz’s return to the screen, but I personally don’t think she’s a good actor, and she doesn’t prove me wrong here. However, Andrew Scott is far too good a performer for this trash, as is Glenn Close. I’m not sure what Netflix did to get them on board, but I hope they had fun at the very least, since I don’t think this production will do much for their careers.

As mentioned, the violence is more graphic than I had expected for a PG-13 film, which sensitive audiences should note. On top of that you can add a fair amount of swearing and a brief scene of teen partying, making this a poor choice for most audiences. Not that it matters, since I don’t recommend the movie from a quality perspective anyway. Back in Action is doomed to make a swift fall to the bottom of the Netflix catalogue to fade into obscurity, where it belongs.