MIDNIGHT REVIEWS Back in Action Review
Netflix Transaction
Matthew D. Smith also has a podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai. You can find it here.
Back in Action (1hr 54mins)
Directed by: Seth Gordon
Featuring: Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Glenn Close
Synopsis: Super spies Emily (Diaz) and Matt (Foxx) fall in love whilst on a mission. When they both survive a plane crash, on the same day Emily reveals to Matt she’s pregnant, they decide to go off the grid and raise their family in relative peace. But how long can that last? Not very long, otherwise the movie would be real boring, dumb-dumb!
Review: Relative peace does not necessarily mean peace with your relatives. Back in Action, after the standard action prologue that sets everything up, shows a sedate but troubled family in need of connection. The family unit needs its parents to do something, lest everything fall apart.
And so it was that Back in Action, otherwise a completely unnecessary Netflix action movie (itself now a sub-genre all of its own) is elevated by Diaz and Foxx.
The title Back in Action seems to be getting tied to Foxx, having returned to the spotlight after illness during the movie’s post-production, but it’s Diaz who is making the most significant re-entry. Her retirement was quietly handled, officially being announced a few years after her last role, and it’s no small thing that she’s back on screens, even if they’re smaller than they used to be. Cameron Diaz was in her heyday a bona fide star. It’ll be interesting if, after this foray, she decides to step in front of the camera again. It’s a bit of a shame that here she’s not really given material she deserves.
Foxx, given many of the choice lines and tiny moments, shows off why it could be argued he’s one of the best entertainers on the planet; he’s certainly one of the most consistently talented actors coming out of Hollywood today. At this point after every action flick Netflix has offered up, it’s stating the obvious that without the pair Back in Action would flounder.
Overall there are some good gags (a Michael Jackson one is particularly disarming) and some decent action. It’s certainly not the worst action movie of all time; it’s all very inoffensive. Netflix seem to have figured that their formula can be saved by featuring stars of high charisma and professionalism. Like super spies Emily and Matt, they get the job done.
The two parts, family drama and action spy, don’t coalesce.
Glenn Close shows up and does well with a part that is wholly predictable (a charge that could be sent the entire film’s way). Andrew Scott’s taken a break from playing a sociopath in Ripley and has come back to Netflix for this. His performance is interesting. Instead of simply reading his lines and getting a paycheque, he’s all unreadable monotone and vaguely creepy even after the ‘revelation’ regarding his character.
As stated, the film as a whole is quite predictable from its smallest beats to its plot as a whole. Whether that affects first viewing is down to the individual, but here it makes certain scenes a tired slog as we wait for characters to reach the end of what we know is going to happen, like trying to get home quickly with a three-year old who insists on walking the whole way.
This relates more to the action part of proceedings. At least the family drama portions are good enough to be entertaining, picking up around the half hour mark as Emily is forced to visit her mother (Close) in an excuse for action-globetrotting. Here, we see family dynamics play out in a way that feels as real as can be when interspersed with tired spy clichés. It’s here where all concerned get to shine a little brighter: Diaz showing genuine hurt as both a mother and daughter; Foxx as the guy in the middle trying to keep things together without interfering too much; Close as the mother who knows she’s done wrong, but doesn’t quite know how to make it up to her daughter face-to-face.
Where the film succeeds is in this family material. In the action stakes, it falls far short.
Ranges from post-modern bollocks we’ve all seen before to actually very funny.
Back in Action is almost like two separate films in this regard (do I get to write two reviews?) A perfect example is when the children get involved. Before the introduction of Glenn Close’s character, where family friction can really start burning, they might possibly be the most annoying, self-righteous characters committed to film in the last ten years. The film tries to convince us that both Emily and Matt are over-the-top in wanting to control how much technology time their children have, or that it’s strange they don’t want their daughter dating someone two years older than her. It’s here where the two parts, family drama and action spy, don’t coalesce. Yet when the frustrating action stuff fades away, all the characters begin to feel much more empathetic.
In examining the film purely on its action merits, there are multiple times where the film writes itself into a corner, and then ignores the corner. What does this mean? A scene where Emily and Matt must decide who gets the one last parachute, setting this up as the big culmination in an action set-piece, before the problem is promptly ignored (i.e. solved in a wholly unsatisfactory way) and everything turns out alright. Please: don’t ignore the corner.
Back in Action at times feels like it’s trying to play all the greatest hits from the later Mission: Impossible movies. Results range from sub-par TV movie to high budget, too much polish. It ends in a message that seems to say: Hurray for unchecked power!
The entire film can be summed up by Jamie Demetriou as the hapless Nigel, with schtick that ranges from post-modern bollocks we’ve all seen before to actually very funny. It’s a shame we have to digest both. That and the obscene product placement.
Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies and TV shows whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter or enjoy the podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai.
