The last time we saw Cameron Diaz on screen, it was way back in 2014. The star, who had been such a magnetic force in Being John Malkovich, My Best Friend’s Wedding and There’s Something About Mary, had checked out with a trio of pale production line films that represented what we’d grimly come to expect at that stage of her career. Diaz had once easily moved between dark and light as well as large and small, had smoothed out any of her more interesting edges to become one of the industry’s highest-paid yet most boringly unchallenged stars. That year saw her lost in the juvenile comedies The Other Woman and Sex Tape before being horrendously miscast in a dud remake of Annie and not long after, she chose to retire, perhaps feeling as glum over the quality of her films as those of us stuck watching them.
News of her re-emergence, after a decade of focusing on family and an organic wine brand, came at an opportune time, as the industry still struggles to find newer and younger yet equally luminous movie stars to take over from those that came before. Many from that era have found success on Netflix, from Adam Sandler and Jennifer Lopez to Jessica Alba, and so it seemed like the smoothest way for Diaz to re-engage with her fans, partnering with her Annie co-star Jamie Foxx for a broadly appealing action comedy. It’s an easy way back in, a low-effort comeback vehicle quite literally called Back in Action, but the film is only a half-victory at best. While it might prove that Diaz still possesses that same particular magic, it also shows that she should be far more discerning with how she chooses to share it.
