When Netflix creates a great movie, it’s because they start with an occasion and an audience in mind. Adult kids are back home for Thanksgiving, let’s make a new “Knives Out” movie. Kids need to be distracted for 90 minutes? Here’s “Over the Moon.” 

“Back in Action” is a date night movie reverse-engineered. He wants action, she wants romance? Want a little bit of escapism and winking acknowledgment of the daily realities? Need a theme about the importance of your relationship with your teens? How about some of your favorite movie stars from when you were a teenager? 

Netflix often gets dragged because its films feel formulaic. But when they get the formula right, it can’t help but satisfy.

Not many people will leave “Back in Action” thrilled, but lots of people who went out to dinner while the babysitter put the kids to bed and just want to be entertained will leave quite happy. It’s rare for a film to satisfy so much of its intended audience. And this will.

We meet Matt and Em (Jaime Foxx and Cameron Diaz) in the middle of a CIA mission to capture a weapon from a generic Russian. While escaping, Em reveals that she’s pregnant with Matt’s child. When the airplane they’re escaping in crashes, they decide to use it as an excuse to leave the CIA and start domestic, suburban bliss, keeping the weapon to use as leverage if they ever need it. 

Fifteen years later, they are coaching soccer and worried about their kids’ screen time. But when their oldest daughter uses a fake ID to go into a club, they break in, and their well-honed skills come out captured on video. 

Discovered, they are thrust back into it, so they take their kids and run to England, where we deal with ex-boyfriend MI-6 officers (Andrew Scott), and frayed mother-daughter relationships (Glenn Close). 

It’s the latter where the heart of the movie is found. Matt and Em reckon with why they made the decisions they have and how that relates to their own frustrations with their children, while Em comes to terms with her own mother. It’s not deep stuff, but it serves as a nice thematic note for the intended audience. And the film has a good enough twist to make the entire screenplay come together. 

The film is structured like an action movie, with exposition and character notes shoehorned between action set pieces. These vary in quality, with the opening scene and a car chase scene serving as standouts. Unfortunately, it’s during the climax where the action scenes don’t come together quite as well. The choreography is serviceable but not notable. Fortunately, the cast really takes advantage of the character moments. Cameron Diaz is as good as she’s ever been. No one is trying too hard, but everyone is having fun and hitting the mark.

This film is trying to hit the same target as the Steve Carrell-Tina Fey “Date Night” or the Adam Sandler-Jennifer Anniston “Murder Mystery.” This remix leans a little more action and is a little more polished. But gets the same job done.

The movie is PG-13. There’s a lot of over-the-top comic book-style violence. And a few well-placed expletives that I imagine will turn some people off. Teenagers would probably like it well enough, but it would bore younger kids. It’s not one that I would show to my kids unless I really wanted to talk about the parent-child relationship theme. So if I did, that’s where I would focus my questions. How can parents and children show they love each other? How do we miss each other sometimes? What sacrifices do we make for each other? 

Three out of five stars. “Back in Action” releases on Netflix Friday, January 17, 2025.