Review

Back in Action (2025) Review: Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx’s Winning Chemistry isn’t Enough to Overcome This Cliché-Ridden Action Comedy

The long-missed Cameron Diaz comes out of retirement and is Back in Action, her first in 11 years since Annie back in 2014. I’m initially worried the decade-long absence in her acting might be rusty here but the minute she shows up in the pre-credits opening sequence, it rather feels like yesterday since she quit showbiz to focus on her family. Her likeable, yet magnetic charm remains intact as Diaz, who plays one of the top CIA spies Emily is ready for a mission with her colleague and partner, Matt (Jamie Foxx) on a mission to retrieve a master key, well, let’s just say it would be bad news.

It was fun watching Diaz and Foxx playing off against each other right from the get-go, leading to a subsequent scuffle in a private plane against the assailants mid-flight (that inner Charlie’s Angels in Diaz sure looks good as she kicks and punches the bad guys). A questionable CGI follows during the crash down the snowy mountain but credit still goes to Seth Gordon’s dynamic camerawork and competent direction in the action department.

Between risking their lives on a mission, we also learn that Emily is pregnant with Matt’s child. In other words, they need to get off the grid and start a new life living like a normal couple while raising their kids. Fast-forward to the present day, Emily and Matt are now living in a suburban area with their two kids (McKenna Roberts’ Alice, Rylan Jackson’s Leo). Their post-spy life has been dedicated to being overprotective parents, particularly Emily.

Gordon, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Brendan O’Brien (2014’s Neighbors a.k.a. Bad Neighbours) does not waste much time focusing mainly on Emily and Matt’s domestic life as parents taking care and at some point, spying on their kids, specifically the rebellious Alice who’s been lying behind their back. They have been discreet for the past fifteen years until a nightclub incident ends up in a viral video and the next thing they know, their cover is blown.

Gordon continues to showcase his flair for a crisply directed action set piece as seen in the energetic car chase all over the suburban neighbourhood. As their past catches up on them, they have no choice but to flee to London with their kids. Gordon piles up with more action sequences — the makeshift flamethrower using the petrol pumps, the motorcycle and boat chase — as Back in Action impresses with its series of practical stunts and elaborate choreography.

For the technical aspect in the action scenes alone, Gordon sure delivers and I’m glad he doesn’t shoot them in an indecipherable, jittery camerawork and rapid-fire editing that you can’t see what’s going on. Again, I enjoy Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx’s performances. They make a great on-screen couple and the younger actors, McKenna Roberts and Rylan Jackson who play the kids are equally worth mentioning too.

And yet, it’s hard to shake off that deja vu feeling as Back in Action misses the opportunity to stand out above the rest of made-for-Netflix’s espionage-themed action movies these days. A few commendable acting and action set pieces aside, the overall writing reeks of the standard-issue, straight-out-of-the-assembly line narrative structure of a spy genre. Glenn Close, who plays Emily’s estranged mother living in a countryside manor and sports a posh English accent, is introduced during the second half of the movie. But what could have been a nice addition turns out to be sadly underutilised here.

The same also goes for Kyle Chandler as Emily and Matt’s former superior but Andrew Scott fares the worst playing the agent been trying to track down Emily and Matt, whose strictly impassive expression makes me feel as if he wanted to be somewhere else other than appearing in this movie. Given the fact this is Cameron Diaz’s first major acting role in a decade, she certainly deserves better screen treatment than this generic spy action-comedy.

Back in Action is currently streaming on Netflix.