Review: Netflix’s ‘Back In Action’ Is A Stirred-Not-Shaken Vanilla Spy Comedy

Inoffensive. That’s the only way to describe Netflix’s Back in Action.

It ticks every studio-mandated box, appeals to the four quadrants, features notable Hollywood leads in Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz, and possesses the soul of a robot. This isn’t to say it’s a bad movie per se; it’s simply content for the sake of it, and is that really what anyone wants more of in 2025? Mild spoilers for Back in Action follow.

To be fair, the premise didn’t promise much to begin with. It’s the age-old story: Two CIA spies, Matt (Foxx) and Emily (Diaz), fall in love. After a dangerous mission where they’re double-crossed, and with Emily pregnant, they decide to go off the grid and live normal lives. Fifteen years later, Matt and Emily epitomize suburban bliss with their two kids, Alice (McKenna Roberts) and Leo (Rylan Jackson). One day their past comes knocking on their front door – quite literally – and they’re pulled back into the world of espionage – this time, with their kids in tow.

It’s a conglomeration of generic jokes, spy tropes, and mind-boggling logic 

Think of every generic joke between adults and kids, the spy genre, and the dynamics of relationships. Multiply that by two and you’ll get the outline for Back in Action. While Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz remain as charismatic as ever – as do Glenn Close as Ginny and Jamie Demetriou as Nigel – there’s not much substance to this story, as it’s more of a Post-it note than a script. Every scene is written to elicit a “ah-hyuck” from the audience, but by the first hour, it’s more groans and sighs than anything else. This film suffers from being two hours in length as the shtick gets old rather fast and the jokes get unfunnier. By the time the credits roll, there’s only one reaction from the viewer: Indifference.

What’s most disappointing about Back in Action is how it refuses to deviate from every spy comedy film. It’s cookie cutter and by the numbers to a disgusting degree. So much so that everyone can call out the next scene or predictable twist in the story long before it happens or the character drops the exposition bomb. Seriously, there’s not a single moment in the movie where someone can say, “I didn’t see that coming,” or, “Wow. They actually went there instead.” 

In addition to this, this movie has some serious jump-the-shark movie logic. Without getting too deep into spoiler territory, even though absolutely nothing is surprising here, let’s just say there’s the belief that spy skills are transferred by family blood. In other words, forget about all those years of training the mind and reaching peak physical condition, because a kid will have incredible reflexes and sharpshooting abilities due to their parents being spies. This isn’t the X-Men, Netflix; that’s not how spy skills work.

Stay for the action scenes and star power

Where Back in Action shines is in the action department. These scenes are slick, impactful, and highly creative in their execution – in other words, everything that the rest of the movie isn’t. It’s to the point in which everyone can’t wait until the next action sequence comes along to split up the monotony of the story. Maybe that should have been the approach here: To focus more on the action rather than comedy aspect of the film.

It’s tough to fault Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx’s efforts here, though. They play the kind of likable roles they have been known for in the past, bringing a comforting quality to the proceedings. However, when one looks at some of the peaks in their career, such as Collateral and Ray for Foxx and Gangs of New York and There’s Something About Mary for Diaz, this feels like a regression rather than progression. Both of them deserve better scripted roles than this, as do the likes of Glenn Close, Andrew Scott, and Kyle Chandler. In fact, Netflix should do handstands that it managed to assemble stellar starpower for such a mid movie.

‘Back in Action’ is Netflix at its average best

Back in Action‘s script is credited to Seth Gordon and Brendan O’Brien, but it received additions from 17 other people. Yes, you read that correctly. This comes through in the final film as it feels like it has gone through the corporate creative grinder to ensure it comes out risk-free and exactly like everything else out there. What’s the end result? It’s unremarkable and doomed to be forgotten as soon as someone skips back to Netflix’s home screen.
Unquestionably, Netflix spent a lot of money on this movie to assemble the big-name cast, expensive action sequences, and big-budget marketing campaign. But is this really the best the streaming service can offer? Back in Action isn’t exactly the kind of movie that encourages people to sign up or stay signed up to Netflix. It’s becoming a crisis of creativity right now, and something needs to change.