Back in Action

It’s nice to see Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz both Back in Action, even if it comes via a rehashed action vehicle unworthy of their talents.

Foxx is back on the screen after extended recovery from a serious illness, and Diaz returns to acting after a hiatus of more than a decade — since starring in Annie alongside Foxx.

At any rate, they convey a breezy chemistry as married spies while trying to make the most of a script that works better as a comedy about contemporary parenting than it does as a globetrotting espionage thriller.

The result manages a few snappy one-liners while traversing familiar territory, as it struggles to raise the emotional stakes or generate much sociopolitical intrigue to support its ridiculous premise.

Fifteen years after they fell in love as CIA operatives battling terrorists overseas, Matt (Foxx) and Emily (Diaz) have settled into a comfortable suburban lifestyle, where the primary stress comes from raising a rebellious teenage daughter (McKenna Roberts) and her tech-savvy younger brother (Rylan Jackson).

The kids know nothing of their parents’ harrowing resume, which abruptly shifted gears after Emily became pregnant. However, their secret identities are compromised, leading to suspicions that Emily’s feisty British mother (Glenn Close) holds the key to some top-secret intelligence that could fall into the wrong hands.

So the couple is forced into an unplanned mission — this time with the bewildered youngsters in tow — navigating a maze of deceit and betrayal that includes their old boss (Kyle Chandler) and a shadowy MI6 agent (Andrew Scott).

The screenplay by Brendan O’Brien (Neighbors) and director Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) urges you to leave your brain on autopilot during its convoluted set pieces, trendily choreographed to soundtrack standards from Dean Martin, Etta James, and others.

The film employs a tried-and-true strategy of unleashing as much mayhem as possible to cover up all the logical gaps and thinly sketched characters. The charismatic stars do their best to inject some playful energy.

Yet it only sporadically rises above the mundane predictability, such as during an impressively staged climactic motorcycle and motorboat chase in formalwear through London.

With nondescript villains and uninspired twists, Back in Action feels like algorithmic programming as generic as its title.

Rated PG-13, 112 minutes.