Back In Action Review: Cameron Diaz And Jamie Foxx Are A Blast To Watch

"Back in Action" is one of those films that's been able to churn up fanfare simply by existing in its final form. The action-comedy marks the first feature film credit in more than 10 years for one of its stars, Cameron Diaz, and the first major film for its other star, Jamie Foxx, after a life-threatening health scare that he's only recently begun discussing in public. It's one of those movies, in some ways, that seems just a little bit miraculous, and that only adds to the anticipation.

But even beyond that feeling, there's reason enough to get excited about this movie. After all, Diaz and Foxx are bona fide movie stars, collaborating in what feels like a harmonious and amusing way. This film is set up as the perfect watch after a long week at the office, when you just want to unwind with a little bit of stunt-work, comedy, and heart.

Fortunately, if you come to "Back in Action" looking for that kind of unwinding experience, you'll be rewarded. Anchored by Diaz and Foxx's combined star power and a general sense of pleasantness that never fades, it's a solid little action-comedy with a bit of family fun at its core. The bad news, if you want to look at it that way, is that there's not much else there, leaving the film a hollow, though pleasant, experience.

Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx play Emily and Matt, and when we meet them in a flashback sequence, they're two of the best agents the CIA has to offer. They're in the middle of a job, they've got great chemistry and a little romance on the side, and everything's going fine. There's just one problem: Emily is pregnant, and as their escape from their latest operation proves, the job is not exactly compatible with families.

It's a dilemma that Matt quickly solves when he declares his love for Emily and his desire to have a family, and that seems to get a lot easier when the plane they were supposed to be on crashes in the mountains. Seeing a convenient way to fake their deaths and start a new life, the pair disappears, get married, and sets out to welcome their first child.

Flash forward 15 years, and Emily and Matt are doing well. They've got a teenaged daughter named Alice (McKenna Roberts) and a son named Leo (Rylan Jackson), they've got jobs and soccer coaching gigs and a nice house in the suburbs, and everything seems fine — at least until they make too big of a splash trying to protect their kids in a public place. With their cover blown, Emily and Matt are suddenly thrust back into the spy life, and the hunt for a powerful piece of tech they were supposed to secure 15 years earlier. They've still got all their old skills, but this time, they'll have to do it all with their kids.

Though the prologue plays just a little too glossy in the way it sort of hand-waves over all the various issues with the couple's plan, once "Back in Action" picks up in the present day, it really starts to move. Director Seth Gordon, who co-wrote the film with Brendan O'Brien, knows that he's got two charisma bombs operating simultaneously on screen, and he knows when to sit back and let Diaz and Foxx cook. When they're being helicopter parents, taking things like boys and video games too seriously and trying to keep their kids from learning all their secrets, it's a blast to watch, and that only gets more fun when the action movie of it all really gets rolling.

If there's a not-quite-fatal flaw in this whole story, it comes when the film decides it needs to take the whole saga overseas, where the family can meet Emily's mother (a scene-stealing Glenn Close) and traipse around London to throw some really big stunt setpieces into the mix. For one thing, these setpieces, while competent, aren't all that impressive given their surroundings, and for another, moving the action into a kind of globetrotting mega-spy sphere robs "Back in Action" of some of the immediacy and warmth promised by its setup. In the first act, when Emily and Matt are forced to become spies again even as they're driving a minivan around in a chase scene, things are working really well. There's one moment early on when they have to make weapons out of nothing but their kids' snacks, and it plays delightfully as a piece of small-scale action comedy that emphasizes the characters' concern for the life they've built in the years since they left the spy game.

By moving the action to bigger and bigger things, "Back in Action" loses something of that immediacy, and leaves it to Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx to steer the movie through choppier, grander waters. Fortunately for the viewer, the duo still has what it takes to do exactly that, which means that even as "Back in Action" leans too heavily on spy movie clichés and loads of knowing winks at the camera, we're still watching because the film's stars are just ... well, watchable. The film gets to coast on their charms, chemistry, and the spark they have with both McKenna Roberts and Rylan Jackson. It's clear that everyone here is having a good time, and that translates to the screen even if what's happening around the cast is sometimes lackluster, unimaginative, and even a bit stale.

So, "Back in Action" is not the next great piece of action cinema, nor is it a particularly hilarious comedy. What it does manage to be, through the force of its stars and the warmth of its intentions, is a steadily entertaining piece of fun — great for popcorn on the couch on a Friday night.

"Back in Action" hits Netflix on January 17.