Monday, February 10, 2025

Movie; Back in Action (2025) Caution: Spoiler Alert

 

Back in Action



Came out; 2025

Time; 1 hour 54 Minutes

Watched: Netflix


Rated: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, some suggestive references and strong language and brief teen partying


IMDB Rating; 5.9/10


Rotten Tomatoes:

Tomato Meter 28%

Popcorn Meter 58%


Caution; Spoiler Alert


Staring.

Jamie Foxx as Matt

Cameron Diaz as Emily

McKenna Roberts as Alice

Rylan Jackson as Leo

Kyle Chandler as Chuck

Glenn Close as Ginny

Jamie Demetriou as Nigel

Andrew Scott as Baron


Story Line.

Former CIA spies Emily and Matt are pulled back into espionage after their secret identities are exposed


Thoughts:

This started out as your typical “We're spy's but we can walk away and be with each other” type movie but it turned into more than that.


The paring of Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz was perfect. They had great chemistry and made a believable couple.


It was everything I like in a movie, comedy, action and fun.


CAUTION; Spoiler Alert


CIA agents Matt (Jamie Foxx) and Emily (Cameron Diaz) prep for an upcoming mission. The two have been secretly seeing each other and Emily has recently become pregnant but hasn't told Matt yet.

Two are to infiltrate the birthday party of the young son of Balthazar Gor (Robert Besta), a major European arms dealer and the terrorist leader of Volka. The mission is being oversaw by Chuck (Kyle Chandler), another CIA agent. Emily successfully retrieves Balthazar's fingerprint and a sample of his voice and the two use it to break into his safe and steal The Key. The Key is an Industrial Control Systems (ICS) device that can control any electronic system, including nuclear reactors. Shortly after taking possession of the Key an alarm is set off and Emily and Matt fight their way out of the Gor's estate.

They are provided a plane by MI6 and their contact Baron (Andrew Scott), who Emily had a previous fling with. While on the plane trip home Emily reveals her pregnancy to Matt who is joyful and wants to be with Emily.

The two spies become suspicious after the flight's steward Dylan (Tom Brittney) informs them that the bathroom is out of order. However, before they can act on it, Dylan takes Emily captive at gunpoint requesting the Key. Matt causes a distraction allowing Emily to escape from Dylan and the two fight their way through the flight crew.

Dylan accidentally shoots the pilot while aiming at Emily causing the plane to plummet into the mountains. Dylan takes possession of the Key, but the plane clips a peak and his ripped in half ejecting Dylan from the plane with the Key.

Matt gives Emily the sole parachute, but she grabs hold of him and the two land safely in the mountains. Realizing that they have been compromised, and their line of work is too dangerous with a child on the way, they decide to fake their deaths in the plane crash and restart life.

15 years later, Emily and Matt are living a quiet suburban life with their two teenaged children, Alice (McKenna Roberts) and Leo (Rylan Jackson). Alice suspects her parents are lying about their past, which they claim they meet in the Colombia while serving in the peace corp. While loving parents, the two struggle to truly connect with either child.

Paranoid over Alice's new relationship with James (Cruz Hadley) and the growing distance between them, Emily hacks into Alice's computer and reads through her text messages through Matt warns against it. The parents track her to a club where they get into a fight with a few club goers after one of them grabs Alice. The fight is caught on video, but Matt deletes the video off one of the phones. Alice is grounded though she calls out their hypocrisy on hacking her computer and their clear lies about their past.

The fight has awakened in Emily nostalgia for their past and she wants to return to the feelings of being needed. The next day Chuck, their former supervisor at the CIA, arrives at their house revealing he found them through a posted video of them fighting. He warns them that they are still in danger. The Key was never found in the wreckage and the Belarussians, who were behind the attack, are still seeking them. He also mentions that Baron doubled-crossed them and was working with the Belarussians. Chuck tells them they must go into hiding as even the CIA would arrest them if they were found. They start to refuse but Chuck is then shot and killed, and a group of mercenaries begin firing on the house. The two are able to flee the house and the attackers, racing to their children's school to grab them. Matt admits that he took the Key before the plane crash, hiding it at Emily's estranged mother's home as an insurance policy in case their cover was ever broken. After gathering Alice and Leo, they decide to fly to England where Emily's mother lives, using the Key as leverage with the CIA for protection.

They tell the children they have finally decided for them to meet their grandmother, who had they claimed was dead. Alice once again calls them out for their hypocrisy. Emily wants to tell the children the truth, but Matt is against the idea.

The family arrive at Heathrow in London and their arrival is spotted by Baron. While stopping for breakfast and gas, Alice and Leo discover that they have fake identities on their passports. Matt and Emily are ambushed by a group of Volka mercenaries while fueling up, though they easily dispatch the attackers much to the shock of the children.

The four flee the station but are spotted by Baron who gives chase in his own car and the two cars get into a chase though Emily is able to lose their tail. After escaping Matt and Emily come clean about their true identities. Baron continues his search for the family while is deputy Wendy (Fola Evans-Akingbola) starts to become suspicious of Baron's obsession with Emily and the sources of his information.

The family arrives at Emily's mother's house and the kids are surprised to find her living on a large, lavish estate. Emily's mother, Ginny Curtis (Glenn Close), is a well-known and renowned former MI6 agent. She lives there with her lover and protégé, Nigel (Jamie Demetriou). Meanwhile, Baron uses property records to track the family to Ginny's estate.

Matt and Emily tell Ginny about the Key and Ginny and Emily argue over Ginny's absence and lack of love and support while Emily was a child, while Ginny criticizes Emily for giving up her career for her family and Alice still is rebelling and hateful towards Emily. Alice overhears this conversation. Matt and Emily go to find the Key while Alice spends time with Ginny and Leo with Nigel.

After retrieving the Key, Matt and Emily notice a helicopter on the lawn and find Ginny and Nigel tied up. They free them before finding the children held captive surrounded by mercenaries. Emily calls for Baron to reveal himself to negotiate but instead Chuck reveals himself as betrayer. He faked his death and followed Matt and Emily knowing they'd led him to the Key. He also reveals that Baron is clean and has been tracking Volka, not working with them. After the Key was lost and Matt and Emily were presumed dead Chuck was fired from the CIA and lost everything. He is now seeking money and revenge. Matt gives Chuck the Key who then takes Alice and Leo hostage until he can sell the Key, promising to return them in one day.

Looking through security footage to find any information about the helicopter, Matt notices Leo signaling that he still has his thumb ring on that tracks his health data. The group uses that to track Leo to a black-tie gala being held at the Tate Modern venue.

Chuck speaks with potential buyers though Gor is not able to attend and sends his some of his mercenaries to take it. Chuck's associate Daphne demonstrates the power of the Key but completely shutting down the power grid of London. He then has Daphne take control of the Thames River dam, opening it and potentially flooding London.

Emily and Matt recognize that if Chuck is demoing the Key is going to be doing it with the best view. They fight their way up to the penthouse suite where the bidding is taking place. Chuck sells the Key for $250 million while Emily and Matt are stopped by Baron who chooses not to arrest them after determining they were not here to sell the key and acknowledging they thought he was a double agent. Baron and Wendy fight Chuck's guards while Matt and Emily chase after Chuck.

Matt and Emily continue the chase but are stopped by Gor's mercenaries. However, Ginny has taken up a sniper's position atop the Tate Modern which forces the mercenaries to let the two leave. Matt and Emily continue the chase using Gor's men's motorbikes. Baron and Wendy work to close the Thames dam.

Nigel, who is waiting in a van parked in an alley, notices Daphne sneakily getting into a hidden van with a computer and bag. He crashes into the van knocking Daphne unconscious and retrieves the Key. Nigel tells Ginny who informs Matt and Emily, who are on a boat in the river chasing Chuck.

Nigel races to close the dam while Emily and Matt catch up to Chuck's boat and begin to fight off his mercenaries with help from Leo. Nigel is able to get the dam closed before Chuck's boat is able to reach the barrier. Matt, Emily, Leo, and Alice jump off the boat shortly before it crashes into the now raised barrier killing Chuck.

Emily reconciles with Alice and then with Ginny while Matt tells Leo how impressed he is with Leo's quick thinking during his captivity.

A few weeks later Matt is coaching Alice's soccer team while Emily, Leo, Ginny, and Nigel cheer on from the crowd. She scores the game winning the goal and celebrates with the family, who are all now much closer.

Alice leaves to study with James and her friend Annalise while Ginny and Nigel take Leo for the night. Matt and Emily get into their car only to find Baron in the backseat. He tells Emily there is another mission they need help on and they need her to recruit another family member- her dad.

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