Keeping Up With The Joneses Review – High Tech Humor Meets Slapstick Suburbia Fun

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Category: Film

Published on Thursday, 20 October 2016 23:56

Written by Janet Walker

Keeping Up With The Joneses, from Fox 2000 Pictures and Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation, presents a slapstick funny dramedy with engaging, over the top characters and action as two glamorous undercover agents are outed by the suburban neighbors next door.

Directed by Greg Mottola, Keeping Up With The Joneses stars, Zack Galifianakis, in his second comedy role of the fall, Jon Hamm (Modern Family), Isle Fisher and Gal Gadot with Maribeth Monroe, Matt Walsh and Patton Oswalt. The film was written by Michael LeSieur.

Keeping up with the Joneses begins with a rite of passage for suburban families, sending the kids off to sleep over summer camp. As the bus is pulling away Jeff Gaffney, played by Zach Galifianakis and Karen Gaffney, played by Isla Fisher, begin the long trek back to an empty house, unsure of what freedom has become.

The local real estate broker, Meg Craverston, played by Maribeth Monroe, announces triumphantly to Jeff and Karen she sold the house next tot hem to an all cash buyer, sight unseen. Dan, her husband, played by Matt Walsh, shows up and soon the new neighbor news is old and life in suburbia returns with mundane routines.

Karen, a work at home Interior Designer, has a bird’s eye view of the cul-de-sac and when the sleek, shiny, black Mercedes-Benz pulls up and a short skirted, leggy, beauty steps out, our ever observant neighbor Karen is all eyes.

The husband, equally alluring, is waiting outside the sold sign and the two, smoldering, as they kiss, appear in love from Karen’s view. Quickly on the phone to Jeff, who is pulling up the two, Mr. & Mrs. Congeniality heading out to greet the new neighbors with neighborly invitations.

Which is when we are introduced to our romance novel cover couple, Natalie Jones, played by Gal Gadot, who is a social media consultant, culinary talk show hostess and cook book author and likewise captivating, Tim Jones, a travel writer and James Bond look alike, played by Jon Hamm.

Ultra-modern career, ultra-sophisticated car, captivating good looks, oozing charm, our amateur detective Karen, senses something is wrong.

The block June-tober party is the annual event for all the neighbors in the cul-d-sac to show up, catch up, drink too much, gossip and capture the local bragging rights championships in darts, cooking and of course in the biggest tale.

Already suspicious Karen explains no one that looks that good is going to settle here. The fast car, totally out of place, glistening white teeth, and the standard requisite of the burbs, children. Even the well-crafted story of wanting to settle down, sure, yea, right doesn’t sit with our neighborhood detective.

Her first clue comes at the Junetober party when Tim is discovered lost in the upstairs of Karen and Jeff’s home. Unusual that someone so knew to the neighborhood would be snooping to which Jeff said maybe he was just “pooping.”

Soon our Karen is following Mrs. Jones, as Jeff is inadvertently bonding with Tim, a communicator, Jeff is slowly adding the building blocks of communication to his new bromance, with each of the two sharing a bromance, manly, story, slowly, in Jeff’s eyes, a friendship is developing.

Soon Jeff and Tim are on an exotic Man’s day, that began withTim deciding to make his own brew, a specialty of Jeff's and bonding over hops, and a favorite that not one of his real “friends” will try, indoor skydiving, soon Jeff, our sensitive, hapless, bromance lonely, HR specialist has found his buddy.

The cap on the day comes when Tim suggests dinner and suddenly they may as well have flown to Bangkok as our Travel Writer Tim shares an off the beaten path charmer.

During this day, our Karen and Natalie are also experiencing a bonding day as they end up in the lingerie section together.

What follows is hilarious for both couples.

Keeping up with the Jones is a amusing and enjoyable look a life in suburbia and the extremes, at times, people go through to spice up when settling down settles in.

Obviously a spoof on the international espionage, couple of mystery, the spy scenes are well played with state of the art advanced spy gear and electronics. The premise, of course, of stealing state secrets and selling them to a foreign entity is plausible any time.

I thought Jon Hamm, who looked so much like another leading man, that when the credits rolled and I discovered the identity of our mystery travel writer spy. I realized he could easily and seamlessly moved from Modern Family to leading man. He plays charming, suave, take-no-prisoners spy, carries a big gun well and looks dashing doing it.

Gal Gadot, another mystery woman who I’m sure I’ve seen before, plays the heavy hitter, the female strap on the boots and let’s kick it and get it done all the while exuding sex appeal and allure.

I think the biggest shocker for me was Isla Fisher. She is a dramedy queen. Laugh out loud funny, fisher carried her role, as the gutsy, better spy then the spies neighbor, effortlessly. She is a scene stealer.

Zack Galifianakis, the funny center man, is totally hilarious, with his sedate, in touch with his feelings, ever the sensitive communicator HR specialist, Galifianakis is entertaining, a one man comedic machine.

Galifianakis and company bring a solid farce, genuinely funny, each taking his role to the edge. Keeping Up with The Joneses has side-splitting moments, matched with over the top action, pure entertainment, a pleasant diversion.

Keeping up with the Joneses opens Friday, October 21, 2017. It is laugh out loud funny! See it!