Review Roundup: Here’s What Everyone Is Saying About ‘Back In Action’

Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz star in Netflix's newest comedy, Back In Action.
Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz star in Netflix’s newest comedy, Back In Action. (John Wilson/Netflix)

He’s back!

After battling through life-threatening health complications, Jamie Foxx is back in action yet again. This time around, he’s starring alongside Cameron Diaz in Netflix’s latest original film, Back In Action. As he was in They Cloned Tyrone, Foxx plays a character that is attempting to fight against a series of life threatening forces. However, he’s playing a CIA agent and not the hilarious Slick Charles.

As the film makes its grand debut on Netflix, check out what everyday viewers, film critics and everyone else has to say about Back In Action starring Foxx and Diaz.

The Basics

Where To Watch: Netflix (Subscriptions From $6.99 per month)

Cast: Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx, Glenn Close, McKenna Roberts, Rylan Jackson

Synopsis: Years after giving up life as CIA spies to start a family, Emily and Matt find themselves dragged back into the world of espionage when their cover is blown. Back in Action is directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, Baywatch), from a script he co-wrote with Brendan O’Brien.

Critics’ Chatter

(John Wilson/Netflix)

Foxx lured his Any Given Sunday (1999) and Annie (2014) co-star Diaz out of retirement and it is like she never left. Always adept at this kind of comedy action thing, Diaz has not missed a beat and does most of her stunts, as does Foxx. Here’s hoping she is enticed to do more movies. I have missed her. As for Foxx, this is the film he was making when he had a sudden medical emergency, later revealed as a stroke of some very serious sort. Apparently it happened as the film was nearing completion because he is operating at full-tilt here in a role requiring lots of physicality. Close is lots of fun as this wacky senior Brit, and Demeriou gets to deliver much of the comic relief in his fish-out-of-water role. Chandler and Scott deliver exactly what they are asked to do, and both of the kids are refreshingly authentic (well, as much as they can be in these circumstances).

–Pete Hammond, Deadline | Read The Full Review Here

“While Diaz and Foxx might acquit themselves without any real shame, their supporting cast aren’t quite as lucky. Andrew Scott comes off lightest, just seeming a tad lost as the underwritten big bad, but Glenn Close, as Diaz’s British mother, and her love interest, played bizarrely by Jamie Demetriou, are not quite as lucky, both going super size with go-for-broke pantomime performances, aiming to steal scenes but leaving us with only secondhand embarrassment. One hopes this is just what Diaz needed to get warmed up again and her next, a role alongside Keanu Reeves in the dark Hollywood-set comedy Outcome should be more rewarding. Back in Action takes her back in time.”

–Benjamine Lee, Guardian | Read The Full Review Here

“With characters who seem designed as place holders for a future franchise rather than necessities in this one (the comedian Jamie Demetriou turns up as Ginny’s sheepish trainee-paramour), Back in Action has a better cast than its (often mawkish) writing earns. Mostly, the familiarity takes its toll. A wrong-direction car chase is a long way from To Live and Die in L.A., notwithstanding the choice to add a grenade made from Diet Coke and Mentos. And somehow after taking a plunge in the Thames, Alice and Leo are completely dry upon rescue. Evidently the person who coined the title wasn’t the only one who couldn’t be bothered.”

–Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times | Read The Full Review Here

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