Some parents will do just about anything to make it to their child’s soccer game. Cameron Diaz is about to take that commitment to a whole new level. And boy, am I glad to have her back in the world of comedy movies. This actually looks like a lot of fun.
The first trailer for Netflix’s Bad Day introduces Joy, a single mother who makes a pinky promise to attend her daughter’s big game. Unfortunately, the universe has other plans. What begins as an ordinary day quickly turns into a full-blown action-comedy disaster.
Directed by Jake Szymanski (Jury Duty) and written by Laura Solon, Bad Day has been described as a comedic spin on Falling Down, the 1993 Michael Douglas thriller about an ordinary man whose increasingly disastrous day sends him over the edge. This time, the person having a spectacular public meltdown is a mom who simply wants to keep her promise. The movie even has a name for its particular brand of chaos: a “mom-com,” as Diaz herself calls it.
Joy’s problems start piling up almost immediately. Her car gets towed. She’s forced to deal with the sort of passive-aggressive nonsense that apparently comes standard with the neighborhood Pilates crowd. A trip involving her father’s dialysis appointment adds another headache to the schedule. Things take a particularly unfortunate turn when her bank card malfunctions, leading to a misunderstanding that makes it look as though she’s attempting to rob a bank. Before long, Joy is caught up in a bus hijacking situation and has a police detective hot on her trail.
That’s quite a commute to a soccer game.
Diaz plays Joy, with Modern Family and Married… with Children veteran Ed O’Neill appearing as her father. The supporting cast includes Danielle Brooks as a detective pursuing Joy, with John Higgins as her partner. Mark Duplass, Ben Schwartz, Rob Corddry, Rhenzy Feliz, Sam Richardson, Retta, Beck Bennett, Sherry Cola, Edi Patterson, P.J. Byrne, Ayden Mayeri, K Callan, Jessica Belkin, and Emma Pearson round out the ensemble.
Szymanski is best known for directing the comedy series Jury Duty, while Solon previously wrote Netflix’s Let It Snow and The School for Good and Evil. Producer Beau Bauman reunites with Diaz after their work together on Back in Action, the Netflix action comedy that marked her return to the screen after a lengthy break from acting. Bauman produces through Good One Productions, with Mark Moran serving as executive producer alongside Solon.
The movie was filmed across New Jersey and New York during the fall of 2025, with production making use of locations in communities including Jersey City, Plainfield, Bloomfield, and Perth Amboy. The trailer suggests Diaz was more than willing to get physical with the material. Director Szymanski told PEOPLE that the production had a stunt performer available for her, but Diaz was game to handle much of the action herself.
Diaz also explained why Joy’s predicament appealed to her. While the events of Bad Day are deliberately over the top, she connected with the idea of a mother trying to stretch herself in every direction to show up for her children. She described the movie as a funny, heartfelt “mom-com,” and the trailer certainly puts Joy through enough trouble to earn that label.
Bad Day arrives globally on Netflix on December 11, 2026. Until then, parents everywhere can take comfort in knowing that even if their own afternoon goes sideways, there’s a pretty good chance they won’t accidentally end up commandeering a city bus.
