“Keeping Up with the Joneses” is directed by Greg Mottola and it is a comedy starring Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover), Isla Fisher (Now You See Me), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), and Gal Gadot (Batman v Superman). This movie is about a couple (Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher) who currently has their kids at summer camp for a couple of weeks, throughout that time, another couple known as the Joneses (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot) move into their neighborhood. Not too long after they move in, the main couple consider the Joneses to be abnormal to the point where they investigate their lives and snoop around their home which leads them to finding out these folks are government spies and then Galifianakis and Fisher get involved in an international espionage plot with the Joneses.

Zach Galifianakis plays the main dude in this movie who goes by the name Jeff Gaffney. My mother loved this role, I personally liked it, I wouldn’t say I loved it. I thought the female roles in this movie were funnier whereas the male roles in this movie were somewhat forgettable. Although one thing I won’t forget is the company which he works. Not to digress or anything, but Jeff works for this company I don’t remember what its name is, but the thing that kinda bugs me about it is the logo. This is kind of a nitpick, but I can’t help but point out how much of a carbon copy the logo is of the IGN (International Gaming Network) logo. In case you haven’t seen the logo it’s right here below.

If you haven’t seen the movie and plan to see it at some point, keep your eyes peeled for it if you feel like paying some extra attention.

Isla Fisher plays Jeff’s wife Karen, she is essentially the mom that cares a lot about her kids and throughout the movie it shows even though the kids are not even in it, as mentioned before the kids are at summer camp. Sure, Jeff cares about the kids too, but I almost feel like the mom cares more (definitely not the first time I’ve seen that in a movie). It shows during a car chase midway through the film while she’s on the phone with her kids, you can hear Karen’s voice as if she’s super worried if she’ll make it through the scenario whereas I’m hearing Jeff’s voice and he definitely cares, but if there’s one thing I’ll remember most from the words coming out Jeff’s mouth it has to do with eating a cookie, which was kinda one of the main purposes of the call, but it didn’t sound like he cared about his kids (or his future if he had one) more than how his kids eat a cookie. I greatly remember him yelling “Split the cookie! Split the cookie!” Is this a problem? No, it just sets these two personalities apart.

Jon Hamm plays Tim Jones. He is one of the new neighbors and as I mentioned before, the male roles in this movie are unmemorable. I wouldn’t say they were bad, they were just unmemorable. This is another example. I barely remember any of this guy’s lines, but I thought his interactions with Jeff was a highlight of the movie, and the scene with him and Jeff in that bar was pretty funny.

Gal Gadot is also in this movie, she had my favorite role in this movie and wooooaaaah… Yeah, she’s hot, and might even be my celebrity crush right now, but I’m a professional (or at least I’d like to think so) so I digress. She plays Natalie Jones and she was the funniest character in the entire movie, not to mention she was pretty bada$$. Seeing her in that chase scene I mentioned not too long ago was quite a sight to me and made me feel like I was watching an all-out action flick instead of an action-comedy. Speaking of which, I want to see an action film (No, the new Wonder Woman movie is different than what I’m thinking about) starring Gal Gadot. Get on it Hollywood, if you can’t, I’ll write it for you and I can probably send it to a studio later in life depending on where the road takes me.

The most important part of a comedy is the humor, so was the movie funny? Yes indeed. Some characters were funnier than others but the movie had a lot of good sexual humor, slapstick humor, and Gal Gadot, there’s this one scene shown in the trailer where she’s trying on lingerie and she’s leaving a voicemail to her husband, she mentions to Isla Fisher that it is a “thing” she does with her husband. It’s kinda funny, but Gal references it later towards the end of the movie, what happens after it is gold. I won’t ruin it for you, I’ll let you see it for yourself, but it’s freaking hilarious. However I will say that the movie doesn’t deliver much comedy that feels new or fresh, which really bogs down the movie’s score for me.

In the end “Keeping up with the Joneses” is a rather decent film. It’s not groundbreaking in any sort of way, but it does deliver some laughs. I can only imagine myself watching this movie again if I find it on TV, perhaps a channel like TBS or maybe HBO, but if you were to see this in theaters I would say you will probably end up laughing at some point in the movie. I’m going to give “Keeping up with the Joneses” a 6/10. I’m not sure which movie I’m going to see next, but I’m either going to see “Sully” or “The Girl on the Train”, we’ll just have to see what happens in the near future. Also be sure to check out my earlier reviews I’ve done recently, for example I did “The Accountant” starring Ben Affleck as Batman–I mean as a high function autistic dude that kicks some a$$. Check it out, the link to it will be posted down below, and stay tuned for more reviews. Scene Before is your click, to the flicks.

“THE ACCOUNTANT” REVIEW: https://scenebefore.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/the-accountant-ausome/