KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: Rated PG-13

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONES – Rated PG-13 – 105 Mins.

Starring Zach Galifianakis, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot

From Greg Mottola, the Director who brought to the big screen films like PAUL, ADVENTURELAND, and one of my favorite comedies OF ALL TIME – SUPERBAD, comes a film that just goes to prove, your neighbors may not be at all what they seem to be…. this is KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES!

Living the mundane life of an HR Professional, we meet Jeff Gaffney (Zach Galifianakis) and his beautiful wife Karen (Isla Fisher), as they attempt to meet ~ and check out ~ their new neighbors…the gorgeous and modelesque Natalie Jones (Gal Gadot) and her strikingly handsome hubby Tim (Jon Hamm).

As Jeff figures what better way to welcome the new neighbors to the neighborhood, than to start hanging with his new super cool buddy Tim, Karen is getting a feeling that Natalie and Tim aren’t at all who they say they are…

When Karen’s snooping reveals that their new neighbors are working undercover for the government as spies, Jeff has no choice but to try to convince Karen to back off of all her craziness, as there is absolutely no way that the Joneses can have that much to hide…

I give KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES a rating between WAIT AND CATCH THIS ONE ON DVD or NETFLIX: Excited is an understatement about how I felt going in to see Wonder Woman, aka Gal Gadot and Don Draper, aka St. Louis native Jon Hamm hitting the big screen! I was so hoping that this film was going to be extremely enjoyable viewing, so much so that I could tell everyone to that only way you can view this film is at a theater near you on the BIG SCREEN, but, sadly, IT’S NOT! Galifianakis is more demure and subdued than you would expect to see from him, even though this performance seems a lot like what we just saw him do in MASTERMINDS a couple weeks back. Fisher’s performance  was okay this time too ~ although the guys watching are going to absolutely love her attire throughout parts of this film – so be ready ladies, I warned you!!! And casting Gadot and Hamm as spies seemed like the perfect castings too, but between the average acting, the average storyline, and the average action sequences throughout, I would have to say this film is about as average as its gets. It’s not bad, it’s not fabulous, it’s just okay…leaving me to suggest that if you thought you might want to head out to catch this one at the theater this weekend, you might want to reconsider, as KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES will probably be more palatable viewing for you, if you catch it in the comfort of your very own home, about 8 weeks from now…

Kathy Kaiser