Keeping Up With The Joneses is an action comedy film which stars Gal Gadot, Jon Hamm, Isla Fiser and Zach Galifianakis. The film’s plot is about a family called the Gaffneys’ who’s lives are interrupted by the arrival of new neighbors, Tim Jones is an accomplished travel writer whose hobbies include blowing glass, and his wife, Natalie, is a social media consultant, cooking blogger and heroine to Sri Lankan orphans. The Gaffneys soon find themselves in the center of a storm of international espionage that gives them a breathtaking glimpse of life outside their cul-de-sac.
I must say that Keeping Up with the Joneses is an absolutely hilarious film and is packed with the most insane humour and action.
The film begins with the audience being introduced to the Gaffneys’ who’s lives are interrupted by the arrival of their new neighbors, the Joneses who are a couple that own stunning looks which are matched by the worldly sophistication of their lives.
Although this is a film which uses elements such as action and humour to interest audiences into watching the film, I feel that the film struggles in terms of what message it is trying to get across to audiences.
The film was packed with action, humour and more which was delivered by some of the greatest actors and actresses such as Gal Gadot and Jon Hamm but when sitting in the cinema room, it felt as though you were watching an episode of a TV series which you would eventually forget within a week and I think the cause for that was that the film had no plot that was planned or well structured which affected the film in a major way and I feel that the talent of the actors and actresses within this film has been wasted.
Throughout the film we get to see the Gaffneys take on tasks to try and identify who the Joneses really are as they suspect that they may be spies but this continues for quite a while and shows both neighbors begin to bond and get along only for the Gaffneys to discover that a gift which they received from the Joneses was bugged which later results in panic but this results in the Gaffneys getting in more trouble when they are suddenly are attacked by mysterious people and saved by the Joneses.
The film was very interesting when seeing the cast bond with each other and crack hilarious jokes but when focusing on what the film’s plot was, it was very sad to see that there was nothing really there with the film leaving myself and many of the audience with a lot of questions. The film seems to have no build up to any of the key events and has no villains or even story as to who the Joneses are or why they keep moving around.
The film reminds me a little of Angelina Jolie’s Mr & Mrs Smith and it feels as though that 20th Century Fox was maybe looking at replicating the success which they had achieved on that film all those years ago but it seems as though they haven’t quite managed to pull it off.
I enjoyed the comedy in Keeping Up with the Joneses but with the film not having a good or even no plot or story at all, I feel it has let me down and for that reason I’m going to give it a 4/10.
