I had HBO and Starz for free this past weekend and you bet that I recorded as many movies as possible that I had not yet seen. Keeping up with the Joneses was one of them, but I probably should have saved the DVR space for something more worthy (at least its gone now). This film is truly the pinnacle of mediocre action-comedy that serves no purpose whatsoever. Even though the cast involved performed decently, every other aspect of this film was an absolute and utter waste of time.
The only part of the action-comedy genre that is managing to keep it alive anymore is casting. Zach Galifianakis, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm, and Gal Gadot lead this movie as two wildly different suburban couples; the former two as a normal couple while the latter two are secretly undercover agents. The one (almost) redeeming quality of this film is the obvious chemistry between the four leads. They are all amazingly talented actors and actresses who have made quite the name for themselves through some of the biggest films and TV in recent years. Galifianakis and Fisher were fantastic together and are actually able to give off a decent impression of a normal married couple. Hamm and Gadot were also great as the sleek and sexy CIA couple who successfully infiltrated the other couple's life and they were able to provide some actual character development in some of their shared scenes. Even if this development was simply a minor argument, at least they were attempting to take their characters somewhere. The rest of the film was painfully dull in how the characters aided the story. Not enough bold choices were made to give the characters any kind of distinct, comedic features and because of that, all of the dialogue and attempted humor blended in together. The writing by Michael LeSieur was very lazy, as audiences have seen this exact formula countless times. Not to mention LeSieur's grossly exploitative and male-oriented arc of his writing between Fisher and Gadot that was only present to get them both in lingerie, serving no other purpose for the story.
Neither LeSieur or the director, Greg Mottola, made enough creative choices to keep me interested at all. It almost seems as if this script was meant as a pilot for an old TV show that they attempted to remake for Hollywood. The lack of focus between the action tone and comedy tone made for a weak stab at both. None of the action was noteworthy and it did not even seem like there was a choreographer or stunt team for the mindless action that was done. Because of this weak action, one might think that the comedy side of the writing would make up for it. Unfortunately, I only got maybe two laughs out of this entire film, both from Jon Hamm. I feel like the PG-13 rating of this movie was definitely holding it back as well. If this film had been rated R or given better writers, it could have been a much more entertaining piece. That way, there could have been a better effort to make the drama more exciting and the comedy much more sensical and full-circle. The absolute mediocrity of this entire film is what frustrated me the most; so much talent with the cast and so much potential with the narrative, but I can guarantee this movie will inevitably end up in the $5 DVD bin at Walmart if it isn't already there.
Keeping Up with the Joneses is your typical, run-of-the-mill, PG-13 action-comedy that is too afraid to take any creative risks. Because of this, I found myself mindlessly bored during the entire film. Despite being filled with some talented star power, I would not recommend watching this movie. Seriously, save yourself the trouble.
My Rating: ★
No comments:
Post a Comment