January hasn’t been a huge month for 2025 movie releases, but one exception has been Netflix, where the long awaited Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx vehicle Back in Action finally premiered. The movie has been praised for the main cast’s chemistry, some darling side characters and its ending, but there’s one overarching problem I had with the movie that falls in line with a lot of other other Netflix films.
Back In Action’s Ending Sets Up For A Sequel
Spoilers for Back in Action abound from this point. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya. For a pretty straightforward action film, a lot happens in the last few minutes. Nigel (Jamie Demetriou) successfully manages to close the barrier to rein in baddie Chuck (Kyle Chandler). His boat explodes in show-y action movie fashion, but we later find out Chuck’s body is never found, leading to the possibility of his return in the future.
In a separate scene, the family has returned to the suburbs with Grandma (Glenn Close) and Nigel so that daughter Alice (McKenna Roberts) can finish out her soccer season. Foxx’s character Matt finds out his wife Emily has been keeping a secret from him: her father is still alive and may be the key to a new mission. Given the high-profile cast in the first movie, the fact that Diaz allegedly signed a lucrative contract to produce two movies with Netflix, and the fact Back in Action has stickied in the #1 slot on Netflix for days now, I’m feeling good about the possibility of a sequel and also that Diaz’s dad will probably be some big name stunt casting, too.
Honestly, it’s exactly what I’d expect from this sort of movie, and I'm pretty confident I will watch it whenever it comes out. But am I actively looking forward to it? No. Do I really care about these characters and where they're going? No... and unfortunately, that's a recurring problem with a lot of Netflix's movies.
The Frequent Struggle Netflix Films Face
Listen, I’m about to complain a little about Back in Action, but before I do that I want to acknowledge that I watched the film as soon as it hit the Netflix schedule, and when I finished, I felt like it was a perfectly nice way to spend a couple hours. I'm sure there are millions of other people who did the exact same thing. I know at least a few did because they work here and I talked about it with them. We all seemed to think the same thing: that it was cute enough.
And deservedly so. Diaz and Foxx’s action scenes look good. They have a fun little rapport in the movie, and most of the side characters are exceptionally well cast. There's also some comedy bits that work, and the whole thing has a fun little breezy vibe. You could do a lot worse things with your time than watch Back In Action, but would you be happy if you paid money to see it in theaters? Have you even thought about it again after you finished watching it?
Netflix has seemingly dumped a ton of money into original movies in recent years, and you can tell by the visual look of this one. Back In Action has A-list talent, some really expensive-looking action sequences, recognizable songs and it was shot in a lot of different outdoor locations. It took a lot of checks with a lot of digits to pull this off, but all they ended up with was a nice enough way to spend some time.
That's mainly because the script just isn't good enough. There are so many plot holes. I can accept some, given this is a goofy action comedy about two special agents faking their own deaths and moving to the suburbs, but what I can't accept are characters that have illogical motivations and basic story beats that don't make any sense at all.
Kyle Chandler gets fired from his job and is furious about not having a pension anymore; yet, he somehow manages to entice dozens of goons (and a helicopter pilot) to commit terrorism. Fine whatever. I'll go with that. Then he kidnaps his spy pals' kids when there's literally no reason to do so, and if he hadn't, the main characters probably wouldn't have followed him with such gusto. Then the entire government sits on its hands and watches our lead characters chase after him in a boat while a fake spy step-grandpa punches random keys, trying to get a barrier to go up so London doesn't flood. It, of course, does, just in time for Chandler to run his boat into the barrier and cause a massive explosion that curiously doesn't flood London.
I’m not saying these things to take the piss out of Seth Gordon, who I thought did a lot of cool stuff directing this film (but was also involved in writing it). I’m only bringing it up because these head-scratchers are just a few of at least a dozen that occur in the movie, and they're the sort of things that are the difference between people actually caring about this franchise and people thinking it was a nice enough way to spend some time.
Netflix has spent a ton of money on star power, not just with Back in Action, but also with vehicles like Red Notice, The Gray Man, etc. Executives have showed a willingness to pay for the actors and the type of action sequences that many of us want to see, but all of this money has only mostly yielded movies that are fine enough to watch on streaming but have serious problems if you watch them with a keen eye.
I think this is a problem with a lot of the movie content specifically created for the streamer. We get big names and a lot of spectacle, but there's not enough love and attention poured into the script and the substance to create something worth watching again. We've become accustomed to watching some of this stuff streaming with one eye trained on our phones, but even if some people are just going to view it casually, that doesn't mean it's not worth creating a cohesive story with flow and logic behind it.
I liked Back In Action well enough. I'm glad it was "included" with my Netflix subscription, but I won't think about it again until we get the sequel that's probably going to come in a few years. It's not going to stick in my consciousness or the collective consciousness of movie fans.
When that sequel does come, however, I'm really hoping to see more. There's something here with the chemistry and comedy and the action sequences, but I need more than that. I want to see a story everyone can be proud of too. Otherwise, no matter how good everything else is, we're just going to end up with another disposable Netflix movie, which has become a recurring theme.
