There are a lot of Joneses who are hard to keep up with, like Tommy Lee Jones, or Grace Jones. There are some Joneses who are moderately hard to keep up with, like Harriet Jones, or Tom Jones. Then there are Keeping Up with the Jonesesâ Joneses, Tim and Natalie (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot) who are about as hard to keep up with as me, i.e. not very hard at all.
This movie also stars Isla Fisher and Zach Galifianakis as the boring, suburban Gaffneys, whose lives are made mildly interesting by the arrival of the Joneses. The Joneses seem far too perfect and cool for the Gaffneyâs cul-de-sac, so they are clearly spies. No, I mean itâitâs super obvious they are spies. Like they drive cars with shot-out windows and carry around silver briefcases at 3 in the morning. (If Iâm ever a spy, Iâll get a different kind of briefcase. The silver ones are dead giveaways. Spy pro-tip. Ha, keep up with me now!) Itâs never really clear if the Joneses are good spies or bad spies, but the Gaffneys get embroiled in some microchip business and itâs kinda funny. Even though Hamm and Gadot have the campy job of being spies, Galifianakis and Fisher steal the show as bumbling everymen.
Keeping Up with the Joneses is not a good movieâitâs dumb, boring, and predictableâbut itâs stacked with an excellent cast, dozens of chuckles, and a handful of legitimately brilliant LOLs. And itâs exactly what youâd imagine by combining Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Date Night. So these Joneses arenât too hard to keep up with. A brisk walk should do it. Well, not even brisk. Airport-speed. Moving with some purpose, not dawdling, but definitely not winning any races.