Back In Action - Review

Rating: 2 out of 5

THE main draw of action-comedy Back in Action is undoubtedly the return of Cameron Diaz to the screen for the first time in 10 years. Sadly for her, that's just about the only thing the film has going for it.

A derivative and poorly scripted star vehicle, Seth Gordon's film mostly hits the wrong notes despite some decent action sequences.

Diaz teams up with Jamie Foxx as Emily and Matt, two spies turned lovers, who use the disastrous outcome of their latest mission, and the discovery that Emily is pregnant, to walk away from their profession and start a family. Fifteen years later, however, they find their cover blown by some dodgy parenting decisions and are forced 'back in action' to see off old enemies and complete their original assignment.

Thrown into the mix are their two kids, (McKenna Roberts and Rylan Jackson), their former boss (Kyle Chandler), a dodgy MI5 agent (Andrew Scott) and Emily's estranged mother (played oddly with an English accent by screen legend Glenn Close) and her bumbling boyfriend (Jamie Demetriou).

The ensuing film seeks to combine parenting comedy with kick-ass spy action, as the two leads rediscover their mojo while rescuing their relationship with both their disaffected kids and Emily's mother. But rather than presenting anything fun, or providing anything meaningful to say, Gordon's film goes through the motions to emerge as a pale imitation of the films it is trying to emulate.

This is made all the more disappointing given the calibre of the cast involved. Diaz has long been a likeable performer who, on her A game, can deliver both comedic and dramatic turns in movies as diverse as Any Given Sunday (in which she first appeared alongside Foxx), There's Something About Mary, In Her Shoes and Vanilla Sky (to name but four). But here, her efforts are more in line with so-so action-comedies such as Charlie's Angels and Knight & Day (the Tom Cruise match-up that similarly under-whelmed).

Foxx, too, has a far better CV than this material suggests, as does Chandler (of Friday Night Lights, Super 8 and Wolf of Wall Street fame). While it's quite frankly baffling as to what appealed in the material to the likes of Scott (coming off the back of superlative turns in Ripley and All Of Us Strangers) and Close (a former eight-time Oscar nominee and three-time Golden Globe winner). The script here lets down both, badly, with Scott looking lost and Close content to ham it up badly.

Demetriou, meanwhile, feels like he's performing in a different movie entirely, his comic schtick more pitched towards bad British TV sit-com, when it would have been better judged had it been seeking the type of laughs gleaned from the more successful genre likes of Spy.

But therein lies another of Back in Action's biggest problems: comparison to other like-minded films. It's certainly no Spy, yet nor can it hold a candle to the likes of Mr & Mrs Smith or True Lies. Hell, even the Mark Wahlberg Apple alternative, The Family Plan, did it a little better.

The most dismal element of Back in Action is undoubtedly its script, which fires more false notes than bullets in its attempt to be current. And while Diaz and Foxx are smart enough performers to paper over some of the failings by virtue of their strong chemistry, it's ultimately not enough to redeem it entirely, with several lines genuinely groan-inducing or way wide of the mark.

Thankfully, what pull the film does have largely stems from the quality of its set pieces, which are suitably energetic and well choreographed, without setting any new genre standards.

In all other departments, however, Back in Action shares more in common with Diaz's other past movie with Foxx, the forgettable (even risible) Annie remake, which makes her choice of comeback that much more disappointing.