At The Movies: Cameron Diaz deserves better than Back In Action; formulaic Unstoppable

Back In Action (PG13)

117 minutes, available on Netflix
★★☆☆☆

The story: Fifteen years after slipping away from the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency to start a family, trading the world of international intrigue for suburban domesticity, married super-spies Emily (Cameron Diaz) and Matt (Jamie Foxx) find their civilian cover blown.

It isn’t only Emily and Matt who are back in action.

Diaz was Hollywood’s highest-paid female celebrity in 2010. She was Mary of There’s Something About Mary (1998), one of Charlie’s Angels (2000) and the voice of Princess Fiona in the Shrek animation franchise (2001 to present). The Netflix production Back In Action is the actress’ first movie in a decade since the musical Annie (2014), also co-starring Foxx, as well as Foxx’s comeback of sorts, following his haemorrhagic stroke in 2023.

No offence to either, but the stale espionage comedy by American writer-director Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, 2011) is Mr & Mrs Smith (2005) without the hots, Spy Kids (2001) without the fun.

The kids here, sulky teen Alice (McKenna Roberts) and young techie Leo (Rylan Jackson), always wondered why mum and dad can speak Russian.

They finally discover their parents’ past when shadowy forces show up to retrieve a powerful gizmo taken during the couple’s final mission.

The family go on the run, with enemies in pursuit, arriving in England at the country estate of Emily’s estranged mother, herself a retired agent (Glenn Close).

They punch, kick, shoot and boat-chase down River Thames to the strains of Nat King Cole and Dean Martin, as if a soundtrack of American standards would make the rote action routines cool.

It does not.

Equally dismal are the laboured banter and obligatory generational bonding.

Hot take: Diaz came out of retirement for this?

Unstoppable (PG13)

123 minutes, available on Prime Video
★★★☆☆

The story: Emmy Award winner Jharrel Jerome from the Netflix miniseries When They See Us (2019) stars as Anthony Robles, an American wrestler born with just one leg, who rose through the ranks of his high-school team and won the 2011 national collegiate championships.

Robles has challenges far more than the physical in Unstoppable.

He has to overcome societal prejudice, derision, an abusive stepfather (Bobby Cannavale) and the foreclosure of his Arizona family home during the late 2000s subprime mortgage crisis, let alone a formulaic story.

This adaptation of his 2013 memoir on his difficult college years at Arizona State University leading up to his historic victory is that most cliched of sub-genres, the inspirational against-the-odds sports biopic.

Jerome – performing with a leg digitally erased and with Robles as his stunt double – nevertheless brings conviction to the stock messages about self-belief and chasing big dreams. See Robles run almost 5km up a hill on crutches during training, not to be left behind by his teammates.

There is also genuine warmth from Don Cheadle and Michael Pena as his coaches, and Jennifer Lopez as the most glamorous, struggling working-class single mum ever, who supports her five kids with help from Robles’ airport night job. “You are unstoppable,” she tells her oldest boy, lest he forgets how the movie got its title.

William Goldenberg is the renowned editor behind Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and The Imitation Game (2014), and an Academy Award winner for the espionage thriller Argo (2012) – directed by Lopez’s former husband Ben Affleck, who is a producer here. So his directorial debut will almost certainly be well made, if nothing better.

Hot take: The strong performances score points for a predictable underdog-athlete true story.