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There are some very meta movies out there; things like Adaptation, Spaceballs, The Last Action Hero and Scream. It’s more subtly done but there’s The Prestige too and this week of all weeks I need to mention Mulholland Drive. Then and of course there are the Deadpool films. Occasionally though you’ll get a movie that plays it straighter but still has a very self referential title. 2006’s Superman Returns kind of fits into this with Clark Kent’s famous alter ego having been off cinema screens for almost two decades, and 92’s Batman Returns which certainly works this way because narratively the character has not gone anywhere between the first film and its sequel so it’s name has nothing to do with the plot at all. Marvel did it when the movie that marked Spider-Man’s proper return to the company he had originated with, having being long franchised to a different studio, was called Spider-Man: Homecoming. Now we have this film which sees actor Cameron Diaz come out of retirement after ten years in something called Back in Action. 

Diaz was a huge star before she stepped away from the cameras and it is indeed quite a big deal that she has started acting again. It’s a shame that the film in question is more akin to things in her back catalogue like Knight and Day and Gambit than more sophisticated work like Gangs of New York and Being John Malkovich but here she is and it is good to see her again. 

More than anything in fact this leans into Cameron Diaz’s appearance in the two Charlie’s Angels movies where she was a kick ass female spy. Here she plays a woman who was one half of the CIA’s most celebrated super agent team until she and her partner go underground to raise their children (which is pretty much the same reason Diaz herself stopped acting). After her cover is blown though, the truth that has been kept from her kids comes to light and she and they get caught up in a dangerous mission to beat the bad guys once again. 

This idea of having parents whose secret past comes to light endangering their previously unsuspecting family has of course been done plenty of times before in movies including The Family Plan, My Mother the Spy, Nobody, True Lies, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Spy Kids 1, 4 and 5. This being the case we are absolutely not getting anything new here. Within this we also get the protective mother trope, the grumpy teenage daughter cliche and every tired element of every spy film/American family comedy ever wheeled out in place of anything approaching an original plot. There is some wit in the script and Jamie Demetriou gives a genuinely funny performance as a wannabe spy but while it picks up a little when the mission kicks in, there is nothing here that will surprise you at all. 

There is no question that this is not Cameron Diaz’s strongest work then and she could have chosen something better to come back for. Actually though the same is true of almost the whole cast. Jamie Foxx is her husband and all of this is well below him as well. Glenn Close turns up doing an admittedly good impression of Hollywood’s version of an older upper class English woman, all clipped tones, stately homes, tweed and pheasant shooting but this is not Downton Abbey. It is nuts that Andrew Scott is following All of Us Strangers and Ripley with this but it is nice to see even the smallest bit of that Moriarty energy coming back. Even one of kids was in Barbie and Euphoria. No one is going to be looking back on this as their proudest moment. 

Still, it is good to have Cameron Diaz back, as they say, in action. This most certainly doesn’t announce her return as successfully as The Mask announced her debut but hers has been a fairly electric career and now that she is acting again I hope it continues to be so. So see her next in dance drama A Step Up maybe, or historical feminist parable Something More Becoming a Woman of Her Pedigree. Maybe a sophisticated crime thriller called Smarter Choices. I just hope it’s not a cheesy bank heist caper called Doing it for the Money or a romcom named Do You Still Love Me?, which frankly would have both been fitting titles for this. 

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There are some very meta movies out there; Adaptation, Spaceballs, The Last Action Hero, Scream. It’s more subtly done but there’s The Prestige too and this week of all weeks I need to mention Mulholland Drive. Then and of course there are the Deadpool films. Occasionally though you’ll get a movie that plays it straight but still has a very self referential title. 2006’s Superman Returns kind of fits into this with Clark Kent’s famous alter ego having been off cinema screens for almost two decades, and 92’s Batman Returns certainly works this way because narratively the character has not gone anywhere between the first film and its sequel so it’s name has nothing to do with the plot at all. Marvel did it when the movie that marked Spider-Man’s proper return to the company he had originated with, having being franchised to a different studio, was called Spider-Man: Homecoming. Now we have this film which sees actor Cameron Diaz come out of retirement after ten years in something called Back in Action. 

Diaz was a huge star before she stepped away from the cameras and it is indeed quite a big deal that she has started acting again. It’s a shame that the film in question is more akin to things in her back catalogue like Knight and Day and Gambit than more sophisticated work like Gangs of New York and Being John Malkovich but here she is and it is good to see her again. 

More than anything this leans into Cameron Diaz’s appearance in the two Charlie’s Angels movies where she was a kick ass female spy. Here she plays a woman who was one half of the CIA’s most celebrated super agent team until she and her partner go underground to raise their children (which is pretty much the same reason Diaz herself stopped working in cinema). After her cover is blown though, the truth that has been kept from her kids comes to light and she and they get caught up in a mission to beat the bad guys once again. 

This idea of having parents whose secret past comes to light endangering their previously unsuspecting family has of course been done before in movies like The Family Plan, My Mother the Spy, Nobody, The Sleepover, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Spy Kids 1, 4 and 5. This being the case we are absolutely not getting anything new here. Within this we also get the protective mother trope, the grumpy teenage daughter cliche and every tired element of every spy film/American family comedy ever wheeled out in place of anything approaching an original plot. There is some wit in the script and Jamie Demetriou gives a genuinely funny performance but while it picks up a little when the mission kicks in, there is nothing here that will surprise you at all. 

There is no question that this is not Cameron Diaz’s strongest work and she could have chosen something better to come back for but actually the same is true of almost the whole cast. Jamie Foxx is her husband and all of this is below him as well. Glenn Close turns up doing an admittedly good impression of Hollywood’s version of an older upper class English woman, all clipped tones, stately homes, tweed and pheasant shooting but this is not Downton Abbey. It is nuts that Andrew Scott is following All of Us Strangers and Ripley with this but it is nice to see even the smallest bit of that Moriarty energy coming back. Even the one of kids was in Barbie and Euphoria. No one is going to be looking back on this as their proudest moment. 

Still, it is good to have Cameron Diaz back, as they say, in action. This most certainly doesn’t announce her return as successful as The Mask announced her debut but hers has been a fairly electric career and now that she is acting again I hope it continues to be so. So see her next in A Step Up maybe, or Something More Becoming a Woman of Her Pedigree, or a sophisticated crime thriller called Smarter Choices. I just hope it’s not a cheesy bank heist caper called Doing it for the Money or a romcom named Do You Still Love Me, which frankly would have both been fitting titles for this.