Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
An ordinary suburban couple finds it’s not easy keeping up with the Joneses – their impossibly gorgeous and ultra-sophisticated new neighbors – especially when they discover that Mr. and Mrs. “Jones” are covert operatives.
Keeping Up with the Joneses is a formulaic spy-comedy that retreads well-worn suburban-couple-meets-spies territory (Think Mr. & Mrs. Smith but domesticated and diluted). The plot is predictable and offers few surprises, hitting familiar genre beats without much invention. The cast — Zach Galifianakis, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm, and Gal Gadot — elevates the material somewhat with likable performances, particularly Hamm leaning into suave charm and Galifianakis doing his awkward everyman routine. Cinematography is workmanlike suburban-action fare with nothing visually distinctive. Novelty is low as the concept feels recycled and the execution is thoroughly by-the-numbers. The ending resolves neatly but without much payoff or surprise, wrapping up in a generic action-comedy fashion that leaves little impression.