Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet streamed the new feature Back in Action with a Netflix subscription, so be warned!
Even without all of the delays that impacted the eventual release of Back in Action, from Jamie Foxx’s sudden hospitalization in April 2023 to the Hollywood strikes and beyond, fans were still pumped about seeing the actor sharing the screen anew with his Any Given Sunday co-star Cameron Diaz in her return to acting. (Netflix reportedly paid her a king’s sum to come out of retirement.) And yet after watching it myself, I was rather surprised that the best thing about Back in Action isn’t either of its high-profile stars.
The action-comedy’s core plot also wasn’t the most logical or engaging on the whole, which is a point that many critics raised in disapproval, but I truly think the key element saving the film from becoming the first forgettable blockbuster of the 2025 movie schedule is the presence of BAFTA-winning comedian Jamie Demetriou. Few in the biz can instantly add 20-30% more quirky and comedic heft to a project like Demetriou can, regardless of where he slots on the call sheet.
Jamie Demetriou Steals Every Back In Action Scene He's In
From the moment he's introduced, Demetriou's wannabe MI6 agent Nigel is immediately the odd duck, and not only because he's is romantically involved with a woman 40 years his elder, Glenn Close's former sniper Ginny. (He's her "special little project," with much ick attached.) Despite all the pent-up friction between Diaz's Emily and her estranged mother, Nigel is eager to please.
After formally meeting Emily and Matt, whose handsomeness he definitely noticed, Nigel delivers one of the movie's funniest moments when talking to McKenna Roberts' Alice and Rylan Jackson's Leo:
Wow, I love kids. It's your innocence, your sense of wonder. Now let me just plop this on the table like a hot jelly on Christmas morning: would you like to call me Granddad?
Which Nigel then follows by breathlessly saying that he doesn't necessarily want to be seen by Matt and Emily as a father figure, but as a friend. Like quite a few other slices of dialogue in Back in Action, Nigel's comments lean more into trope humor than anything fully organic, but Demetriou still manages to make the lines feel entirely sincere to his character's rose-colored glasses worldview.
From there, Nigel and Ginny are thankfully brought into the high-octane action plot, albeit from the sidelines for a while. And he doesn't even need to be able to talk coherently to win viewers' attention, as proven when Ginny and Nigel are tied up with tape over their mouths.
I don't mean to take anything away from Glenn Close's performance here by glorifying all things Jamie Demetriou. She truly brings the perfect amount of credible gravitas and confidence to Ginny that Nigel clearly strives for, making his own sense of self-assurance that much more amusing in comparison.
What's more, he ends up being Semi-Hero of the Day by attaining possession of the ICS key and averting a potentially disastrous flood. Was it complete garbage that Nigel smacking the laptop in desperate frustration made everything magically work in his favor? Absolutely, but I'm not going to blame a deux ex machina on the actor himself.
Nigel And Ginny Should Get Their Own Back In Action Sequel
For all that Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz are genuinely entertaining to watch together on screen, I wasn't all that amped up by Back in Action's last-second sequel-priming reveal that Emily's father is also still alive and involved with something shady. I suppose it would be fun to for Alice and Leo to train up and join the action themselves, but it'd be hard not to judge the parents for allowing it.
Instead, I'd rather see Jamie Demetriou and Glenn Close specifically team up again for a second film where we get to see Ginny putting Nigel through the gauntlet of MI6 training, regardless of what overarching plotline they'd have to follow. To watch a bunch of legitimate agents raining judgment down on Nigel's bumbling optimism sounds like a cringe-covered treat.
I doubt director and co-writer Seth Gordon will actually go that route, when Diaz and Foxx are the obvious headliners here, but one can always hope. And during all that hoping, fans can also check out a handful of Demetriou's other A+ performances noted below:
- The Afterparty Season 1 - stream with an Apple TV+ subscription
- Stath Lets Flats Seasons 1-3 - stream with a Peacock subscription
- A Whole Lifetime with Jamie Demetriou special - stream with a Netflix subscription
Jamie Demetriou will also soon be seen in Jay Roach’s satire The Roses, as well as the upcoming Adam Sandler movie Jay Kelly, which is being helmed by Noah Baumbach and co-stars George Clooney, Laura Dern and plenty of other A-listers for the UK actor to shine amongst.
