‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’ not worth keeping up with.
‘Joneses’ comedy generates nothing but zzzzz’s
Keep up with the Joneses? You probably shouldn’t even try. Despite having likable actors and an easy escapist concept — at a time when so many people need a two-hour respite from the world — director Greg Mottola’s “Keeping Up With the Joneses” offers very little ... of anything.
It isn’t very funny. It isn’t very entertaining. It isn’t smart or inspiring. The action is on par with that of a car commercial. It’s not interesting enough to be offensive, unless it’s to your intelligence. It’s not even interesting enough to be bad. It’s just ... there.
And for those willing to cough up 12 bucks to look at Gal Gadot on a big screen for 101 minutes ... wait for the Wonder Woman movie. It will be time better spent.
Amovie about regular people tossed into the shadowy world of spycraft seems strangely old-hat now.
Zach Galifianakis is Jeff Gaffney, a happy-but-simple suburban dad and HR supervisor. He and his upbeat housewife Karen Gaffney (Isla Fisher) seem like nice people. You’d want them to be your neighbors.
When the mysterious and exotic-looking couple Tim Jones (Jon Hamm) and Natalie (Gadot) move into Gaffney’s cul-de-sac, awkwardness ensues, and things get weird.
But not weird enough. OK, so the Joneses speak Chinese, write their own cookbooks and play darts exceptionally well. I kept waiting for something so memorably odd that would make the Gaffneys desperate to find out who these people are.
Eventually, it’s just a desire to escape their own boring lives that prompts the Gaffneys to break into their new neighbors’ home, where they find lots of things straight out of a spy movie, including files on their neighbors. Suddenly, they find themselves thrust into a world of snipers, explosions and car chases.
A movie about regular people tossed into the shadowy world of spycraft seems strangely old-hat now. They already made “True Lies” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” (though at least Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt put some edgy fun into the latter). And “Joneses” doesn’t do nearly enough to advance the formula.
Mottola — who proved his comedic chops with “Superbad” — and writer Mike LeSieur just didn’t come up with anything funny or original enough to get real laughs. Maybe a few smiles, but that’s about it. Bits about parents who either have no sex or really fast sex (in case their kids come in the room) are just tired.
One problem is Galifianakis, who might seem a good choice to play the underwhelming, sweaterwearing everyman to contrast Hamm’s handsome and charming Tim Jones. But Galifianakis is at his best when his characters
are not underwhelming. He excels at being bizarre and cringe-worthy. Playing a straight, fish-out-of-water character who falls down a lot just dilutes his comedic potential. Same for Fisher, who is a talented comedic actress but mostly wasted here. Plus it’s kind of weird seeing someone as stunning as she is married to a rotund HR guy whose idea of excitement is getting out for a barbecue once a month.
The story line is forgettable. In fact, I’ve already forgotten it. Somewhere along the way, there is a villain (Patton Oswalt) with a big, international plot that the Joneses and Gaffneys have to scuttle. That all goes down like you’d expect it to. In fact everything — the plot, the characters, the jokes — is pretty much as you’d expect.
The filmmakers made it all too easy the keep up with “The Joneses.” The result is a movie that isn’t anywhere near as much fun as it should be.