Netflix’s ‘Back in Action’ marks Jamie Foxx’s first movie since his very serious medical issues last year, and Cameron Diaz’s first role in about 11 years, so needless to say I had pretty high hopes for this movie - that was my first mistake.
The second mistake I made was not looking into this movie at all beyond seeing the poster and knowing the premise. This was a mistake because had I done even a little research, I would’ve realised that this is an extremely family-friendly movie and therefore gone in with appropriate expectations.
After watching the movie & thinking about it for a while, I’d call it ok…decent…watchable. Read on for a little more detail.
It’s not a bad movie because the main cast are all quite charismatic & funny, so even if the script isn’t exactly laugh-out-loud hilarious, the actors do enough to keep it from being totally unfunny. That said, the humour would’ve had to do a lot of heavy lifting to make up for the blandness of the rest of the movie, and it didn’t come close.
The fact that this movie is family friendly was another limiting factor (for me) because I like a little adult edge to my humour, so between the PG comedy & the simple plot designed for accessibility rather than depth, there wasn’t a lot for me here.
Family-friendliness aside, this movie also felt quite generic. From characters to plot and direction, not a single thing about this movie felt unique or creative, and all the movies it brought to mind were better versions, which made it feel even worse and really pulled me out of the watching experience.
Kinda like a bread sandwich with literally nothing on it. It Doesn’t taste bad and fills up your tummy, but not really much joy to be taken from it. It’ll pass the time and it’s not actively bad, it’s just incredibly, almost aggressively average. Definitely what I’d call background TV.
Between that and my poorly set expectations, not a great watching experience, but I’ve actually seen a decent amount of positive reviews so I think being aware that it's family friendly & setting your expectations properly are a big factor in what kind of watching experience you have. Hopefully this review helps you enjoy the movie more!
trivia
Jamie Foxx suffered a brain bleed leading to a stroke on set during filming in April 2023, leading to emergency surgery and a months-long recovery, before fully recovering and returning to set to finish filming.
Cameron Diaz's first film following her retirement in 2014; her previous film was Annie (2014), which also starred Jamie Foxx.
This is the third movie to co-star Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz after Any Given Sunday (1999) and Annie (2014).
This is Seth Gordon and Jamie Foxx's second collaboration their first being Horrible Bosses (2011)
his is Jamie Foxx's fourth Netflix movie after They Cloned Tyrone (2023), Project Power (2020) & Day Shift (2022).
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