Back In Action

You have to imagine that Back In Action began with its casting, and worked everything else – that apt title, the corresponding premise – backwards from there. Because those three words apply most directly to the film’s A-list star: Cameron Diaz, returning to the screen for the first time in over a decade, on hiatus since 2014’s Annie remake. Back in action, indeed.

As a comeback vehicle, Seth Gordon’s (Horrible Bosses) fast and frothy action-comedy isn’t exactly a stretch for Diaz – from Charlie’s Angels to Knight And Day, she’s long combined outlandish action and affable laughs with ease. None of that ability has been lost in her ten-year absence, making Back In Action (no Looney Tunes here, Bugs Bunny stans) something of an easy-going delight – a slight but fizzily watchable spies-turned-parents-turned-spies-again romp.

Having left the CIA after discovering she’s pregnant mid mountain-top mission (a high-octane opening set-piece with some ropey CGI), Diaz’s Emily settles into domestic life with her field-partner-turned-life-partner Matt (Jamie Foxx, himself somewhat back in action; post-production, he fell seriously ill, and has largely been recovering since). But 15 years later, they blow their cover in a nightclub punch-up that goes viral (YouTube title: ‘BOOMERS WRECK DANCE PARTY’), forcing them back into the world of espionage, this time with kids (McKenna Roberts, Rylan Jackson) in tow.

Watching Diaz kick guys in the head, to the sounds of ‘Ain’t That A Kick In The Head’, is a treat.

It’s a simple but solid premise that Diaz and Foxx attack with gusto, both in the pleasantly crunchy fight scenes – often soundtracked by Rat Pack and soul hits – and in their comedic chemistry. Emily and Matt clearly delight in resurrecting their adrenaline-fuelled life after a decade-plus of domesticity (“I sell custom puzzles on Etsy!” argues Diaz, trying to convince that she couldn’t possibly be a spy), fist-bumping mid-mayhem, and deploying petrol pumps and Mentos and Coke as weapons. That energy translates; watching Diaz kick guys in the head, to the sounds of ‘Ain’t That A Kick In The Head’, is a welcome treat for generations raised on Charlie’s Angels.

Beyond the intelligence antics, Back In Action is ultimately a parenting comedy – especially once it hops the Pond to London, where Emily reunites with her estranged mother Ginny (Glenn Close) and Ginny’s weirdo toyboy Nigel (Jamie Demetriou, the comedic highlight). There’s a smidge of substance in that generational exploration, but never enough to weigh down the fun.

You’ll see the third-act ‘twist’ coming a mile off, and Andrew Scott and Kyle Chandler are wasted in insubstantial roles. But Back In Action succeeds in its mission statement. While Diaz and Foxx could do this in their sleep, it’s a joy having them out of hibernation.