Back in Action
Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): January 17, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
15
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
LooperMatthew JacksonJan 16, 2025
Anchored by Diaz and Foxx's combined star power and a general sense of pleasantness that never fades, it's a solid little action-comedy with a bit of family fun at its core. The bad news, if you want to look at it that way, is that there's not much else there, leaving the film a hollow, though pleasant, experience. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 16, 2025
Back in Action is no comedy classic, but it’s a better than average excuse for getting back on the Cameron Diaz train. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 16, 2025
The movie won’t carve a spot in the classic action-comedy canon, but it’s easily digested fun, which is no bad thing. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 16, 2025
Director Seth Gordon (“Four Christmases,” “Horrible Bosses”) knows how to film fast-moving comedies with star appeal, and Diaz (who hasn’t lost an ounce of onscreen charisma) and Foxx are terrific together, but wouldn’t it have been lovely if they had tackled more creative and challenging material? Read full review
60
EmpireBen TravisJan 17, 2025
A solid action-comedy that proves just how much we’ve missed Cameron Diaz in the last ten years. Next time don’t leave it so long, eh? Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 16, 2025
It is vivaciously, even triumphantly, OK. If there was an Oscar for Most Adequate Picture, we’d be gearing up for a sweep. Read full review
50
Washington PostTy BurrJan 17, 2025
There’s just enough bite there to give the stars something to work with, and Diaz especially responds with the joy of the well-rested. Read full review
50
Screen RantFerdosa AbdiJan 17, 2025
It's not outright terrible, but it's nothing to get too excited about, either. There's even a sweet subplot about mother and daughters and familial trust. It's an overall cute family movie and anyone who adores Diaz and Foxx will find a way to enjoy it. Read full review
50
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJan 17, 2025
It’s not so much a movie as it is multimillion dollar background noise while you stare at your phone. Read full review
50
ObserverEmily ZemlerJan 16, 2025
Diaz and her co-star Jamie Foxx are genuinely charismatic, often delivering lines with a winking sarcasm and likeability. But Back in Action muddles its tone too much to be actually funny, a detriment to the cast’s best efforts. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubB. Panther Jan 16, 2025
Despite reuniting them, Back In Action has nothing new to give its movie stars. It’s not enough that they’re “back” in more of the same material seen in Charlie’s Angels, Knight And Day, or White House Down. They deserve material that considers all that has come before and builds upon it. Read full review
50
Paste MagazineJim VorelJan 16, 2025
Back in Action functions modestly well as a welcome back to the screen for Cameron Diaz, who is still capable of being as charming today as she ever may have been. It even functions decently well as an action movie for the specific, too-narrow frames of time where Diaz and Foxx are thrashing wave after wave of nameless mooks–whoever the choreographer and stunt coordinators are here, they’ve done the heaviest lifting of anyone on the project. But the film feels absolutely threadbare in all other dimensions. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckJan 16, 2025
The action comes fast and furious, and the banter is pleasant enough. Diaz, especially, makes the proceedings decently enjoyable and some of the sillier lines believable. Read full review
45
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJan 16, 2025
Diaz and Foxx still got it, the film constantly screams. The evidence on display, however, suggests otherwise. Read full review
42
IndieWireChristian ZilkoJan 16, 2025
It’s the kind of film that even the most devoted cinema purist should be comfortable referring to as “content.” But watching Foxx and Diaz crackle with the age-appropriate chemistry of a couple that still finds each other attractive after 15 years is a reminder that star power is still as important as ever. Read full review
40
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergJan 16, 2025
Back in Action has a better cast than its (often mawkish) writing earns. Mostly, the familiarity takes its toll. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJan 16, 2025
As it stands, the mostly rather rote Back in Action is best seen as just an excuse to watch Diaz act again, and she’s as charming as she always has been, especially alongside Foxx, with whom she shares a comfortable chemistry. Read full review
40
IGNJesse HassengerJan 16, 2025
Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx do their jobs in Back in Action, assuring that it remains mostly watchable. But it’s ultimately a bummer to watch two well-established stars and versatile actors returning to big-budget filmmaking just to make another spies-versus-real-life action-comedy. Read full review
40
ColliderTaylor GatesJan 16, 2025
Most people are likely clicking on this film for Foxx and Diaz, and they, too, do their best with what they’re given, but the dull, exposition-heavy script never gives them the chance to flex any of their dramatic muscles, and they rarely get to be truly funny either. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 21, 2025
God help me, I laughed a few times. And God bless Foxx for luring Cameron Diaz back on screen, and for his recovery. They’re damned cute together, even if their movie isn’t all that in concept, writing and any scene that involves “inaction.” Read full review
38
Slant MagazineAnzhe ZhangJan 16, 2025
Seth Gordon’s film is largely, and awkwardly, beholden to the most banal of spy tropes. Read full review
30
VarietyOwen GleibermanJan 22, 2025
The two actors are appealing; they’ve got marriage-as-domestic-fight-club chemistry. And when Glenn Close shows up as Emily’s British mother, a former superspy herself, the film calms down for a bit ­— and perks up. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJan 17, 2025
Back in Action isn’t as obnoxiously soulless as “Red Notice,” but it’s firmly within that subgenre of glossy, globetrotting action pictures you can stream while you fold your laundry. It all feels so cynical. Read full review
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