TRASH IN MY EYE No. 6 of 2025 (No. 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux
Back in Action (2025)
Running time: 114 minutes (1 hour, 54 minutes)
MPA – PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, some suggestive references and strong language, and brief teen partying
DIRECTOR: Seth Gordon
WRITERS: Seth Gordon and Brendan O'Brien
PRODUCERS: Beau Bauman, Peter Chernin, Seth Gordon, Sharla Sumpter-Bridgett, and Jenno Topping
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ken Sang (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Peter S. Elliot
COMPOSER: Christopher Lennertz
ACTION/COMEDY/SPY
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, McKenna Roberts, Rylan Jackson, Kyle Chandler, Glenn Close, Jamie Demetriou, Andrew Scott, Fola Evans-Akingbola, and Robert Besta
SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:
Back in Action is no “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” but it is an entertaining action-comedy and spy movie.
Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz work well together, well enough to make me look forward to a sequel.
Back in Action is a 2025 American action-comedy and spy film from director Seth Gordon. The film is a “Netflix Original” and began streaming on Netflix, January 17, 2025. Back in Action focuses on a husband and wife who were once CIA spies and now find themselves pulled back into the espionage game after their secrets are exposed.
Back in Action introduces the Reynolds family: wife, Emily (Cameron Diaz); husband, Matt (Jamie Foxx); daughter, Alice (McKenna Roberts); and son, Leo (Rylan Jackson). They are living the quiet suburban life until Matt and Emily's old lives intrude. You see, Matt and Emily were once “QRN” – “quick reactionary nonofficial” covert operatives for the CIA. Fifteen years ago, they were involved in a mission to capture the “ICS key” from the Polish terrorist, Balthazar Gor (Robert Besta). The mission goes bad, and Matt and Emily decide to quit the spy business and start a family.
In the present, Gor's gang of Belarusian terrorists, “the Volka,” launch an attack on Matt and Emily, who pick up their kids from school and go on the run. They head to England where they will reunite with Emily's estranged mother, Ginny Curtis (Glenn Close), a former MI6 agency head. However, a current MI6 agent, Baron Andrews (Andrew Scott), is waiting for them. Also awaiting Matt and Emily are their past and the people who will do anything to get “the Key.”
Back in Action is the fourth “Netflix Original” in which Jamie Foxx has starred (as far as I can tell), following Project Power (2020), Day Shift (2022), and They Cloned Tyrone (2023). For some reason, I felt as if I had to see Day Shift before I watched Back in Action, which I did a few days earlier. Day Shift is not great, but it is entertaining.
I can say the same about Back in Action. It isn't in the same league as 2002's Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which saw Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play husband and wife who each worked for rival assassination firm. If you took Mr. and Mrs. Smith and mixed it with Spy Kids (2001), you might get something close to Back in Action.
I can honestly say that I enjoyed Back in Action. As a domestic comedy, it is genuinely funny, and Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx play off each other quite well. As a spy movie, Back in Action offers a lot of slick, attention grabbing car chases, fight scenes, shoot-outs, and an extended plane crash that kept me glued to the screen. The family dynamic works pretty well, although I must admit that Glenn Close seems a bit odd as a spy who is the mother of another spy.
That's all I have to say. Back in Action is not great, but it is the kind of star-driven above-average event movie that Netflix regularly offers. Such movies are how they make us feel that our Netflix subscription is worth keeping active.
6 of 10
B
★★★ out of 4 stars
Saturday, January 25, 2025
The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
--------------------
--------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment