It’s a fine line between safe and boring…

On Netflix today; Back In Action is an affable and fast moving family friendly spy thriller with good action set pieces and a loaded cast, but with its cookie cutter script that borrows from a half a dozen other movies there’s nothing here that elevates it beyond us being happy that Jamie Foxx didn’t die while making it.

Years after giving up life as CIA spies to start a family, Emily (Cameron Diaz) and Matt (Jamie Foxx) find themselves dragged back into the world of espionage when their cover is blown.

With its built in familiarity, Back In Action is the cinematic equivalent of a “Dad Joke”.  Sure it’s funny enough play into what it needs to be a pleasant experience, but it’s equally as forgettable when the fun moments slide back into forced exposition and rapid fire plot points to get us where we need to be.

Writer/Director Seth Gordon has done enough of these “safe” style comedies and hit TV shows that there is no actual doubt that he’s a solid story teller, but there’s literally nothing here that is even trying to challenge the audience as the tone of it all does enough to qualify as an action and as a family comedy/drama, but you just won’t be sure when it’s leaning one way or another (other then in the most obvious of sequences).

It’s like a “low-sodium” potato chip or a can of Miller Lite; you’re still enjoying it but you’re just not entirely sure why because while everything is working like it should,  there’s very little actual enjoyable pay off for any of it.

None of any of this though is actually any of the actor’s fault as Cameron Diaz who comes out of a 10 year hiatus for this proves that she still has the high octane chops to be an ex CIA bad ass helicopter parent.  Her chemistry with Jamie Foxx is actually quite strong and they come off as both likable thanks to the insecure parenting jokes they crack with each other while still trying to represent people that need their me time too all the while reembracing the need to kick some ass.

For some reason Andrew Scott is in this playing a stereotypical miele mouthed scorned lover while Kyle Chandler and for some reason Glenn Close round out the ensemble cast, and while you can admire that Close is having fun in this role, you also won’t be able to shake the idea that she must owe some people money because she’s keeps having to do stuff like this.

Ultimately, Back In Action actually falls somewhere in the middle between “content” and an actual film because while it’s fun enough in the moments it gives us, it’s hardly going to light the world on fire and serves as a reminder that sometimes affable and silly is enough.