Back in Action gives us a really dull start to the year in the world of streaming. Photo: Netflix.
For the last two weeks, I have been unable to write a movie review and, as a result, I have avoided my responsibility of warning you about the awful movie releases.
But alas, the time has come for me to once more bear the weight of sifting through the hours of content released to the world via streaming services and cinemas to present to thee my opinion on said movies.
Unfortunately, we will not be starting 2025 with a bang but, instead, a whimper, as Netflix returns to their status quo of releasing crappy action comedies with famous actors from yesteryear. This week’s victims? Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx in Back in Action.
I think it’s fair to say that this is a nothing movie.
It means nothing to the actors in it, nothing to the people who worked on it and nothing to the people who have seen it.
Back in Action follows Matt and Emily, two CIA agents who, after a mission goes wrong, go off-grid and start a new life as ordinary people. Fifteen years later, their past comes back to haunt them and the couple is forced back into a life of espionage.
This review won’t be getting into the nitty gritty of why this isn’t great or why you shouldn’t watch it because there’s nothing to write home about either way.
It is an offensively basic film in almost every regard.
Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx give the most high-budget hallmark-type performances of their careers. The plot has been done to death in movies that are far better and far worse than this.
It’s such a basic background filler, white noise movie that when I told my co-worker I was going to review it, she said, “I had it on while I was playing games on my phone”.
That’s the level we are dealing with here.
Unfortunately, we’re in a bit of a dead zone when it comes to movie releases at the moment. See, we’re not in the American Summer, so the big blockbusters aren’t quite here yet, and with the Oscars kicking off in March, we’re still a fortnight or so away from getting the best picture releases here in Australia.
So instead, we get releases like Back in Action, a movie you’ve seen a thousand times just recycled with different actors so that studios and streaming services can capitalise on a dead market for next to no cost. It’s a brilliant business move, but it’s not as great in the quality department.
If you had fun watching this, great! But for me, it was a race between whether my oven pizza would cook or whether this movie ended first, and frankly, watching the oven pizza cook was more fun.
Thankfully, A Complete Unknown (Timothée Chalamet is getting a bunch of award-season buzz for his turn as Bob Dylan) and We Live in Time come out in cinemas here next week, so I shall have a bit more of an interesting read for you next week.
Tragically, this week, we are stuck with the likes of this.
Back in Action is currently streaming on Netflix.
Loading ...
