Review of Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016) by Leonard D — 23 Oct 2016

Sometimes I just want to go to a movie. I mean, that's all the time, but sometimes I just want to go to a movie even if I'm going to see something that will more than likely be forgettable or even bad.

I just like being at the movies. That said, I guess I knew what I was getting into when I went to see Keeping Up with the Joneses. It isn't awful; it isn't in the realm of the worst movies that I've seen in 2016.

There are a few chuckles in the beginning and the cast tries, but the entire thing is just so utterly generic and inconsequential. If the people behind the camera don't care, then why should we? The movie follows Jeff and Karen (Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher), a suburban married couple that live in a cul-de-sac--both literally and metaphorically.

After they've sent their two kids away to camp for a while, new neighbors move in: Tim and Natalie (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot). The former couple suspects that something's up with the latter couple, and holy crap, it turns out that the new neighbors are actually spies! Who would've thought? (Everyone, actually.

) Anyways, this leads to Jeff and Karen inevitably getting caught up in some wacky spy shenanigans. If you want to know what does work within this movie, you don't even have to think about it because it's all in front of the camera.

The cast is easily the saving grace here. Galifianakis and Fisher have nice chemistry and it's nice to see the former turn his schtick down a bit for this role, or it otherwise could have been unbearable.

Fisher is probably having the most fun here, and I wish that she would get better roles. Jon Hamm is fine, but he felt wasted given that anyone with that much mousse in his hair could have played his part.

The weak link is Gadot, who's recently seen her star rise with her role as Wonder Woman. She's really wooden here and the adequacy of her performance is dependent on who she's onscreen with.

The other cast members, however, play off of each other nicely. The pervasive issue of Keeping Up with the Joneses is that the actors have nothing to work with. This movie is cookie-cutter and unapologetically so.

The setup itself doesn't show much promise since it's tired and feels like the premise for a sitcom pilot, and it more or less plays like one. The script, written by Michael LaSieur (You, Me, and Dupree) is really just a loose series of set pieces for the actors to improvise their ways through.

Again, take away these actors and you have nothing. In fact, because of the script and story, everything becomes repetitive about a third of the way through. The movie is 105 minutes and about nine of those minutes and about nine of those minutes are credits, but it still feels like it runs out of steam about halfway through.

It's odd because Greg Mattola (Superbad, Adventureland) directed this. He must have come onto the project late and with no care for it or something because the filmmaking is just lazy. The movie has no identity to it and it makes the few jokes that could be funny more of an eye roll.

Similarly, the lighting is very TV-like, so overall, I guess you could say that the movie is consistent--that is, consistently underwhelming. You could probably watch this once it comes out on streaming, but there's no reason to see this in the theaters.

The film itself is more or less just a feature-length version of its trailers. I didn't expect or want much out of Keeping Up with the Joneses, but I wanted to laugh way more, but instead I got pretty bored.

It isn't terrible and I guess I'd rather keep up with the Joneses than keep with up a certain family whose name starts with a K, but if that's the bar for comparison, then I guess the movies of 2016 are really starting to show their true colors.

4/10, bad, two thumbs down, definitely below average, etc.