The Joneses have come to live on a nice little homey cul-de-sac in Atlanta, and from the moment they move in, it’s fairly obvious that they’re not what they seem. The two play Tim and Natalie Jones, who seem to have arrived from a planet of ridiculously great-looking Amazonian super-people. government spy, portrayed by Gal Gadot as a slightly more earthbound sort of wonder woman. And if you want to imagine what Hamm might look like in the role, you get a bit of a light dry run watching him in “ Keeping Up With the Joneses,” an amiable time killer of an espionage comedy that casts him as a U.S. But if he’s getting as tired of Bond as he has sometimes insinuated, why not let Hamm step right up? He looks like he could snap Tom Hiddleston in two. Which is to say, Hamm is the rare actor who combines old-fashioned matinee-idol dash with an impossibly cool façade and a diamond hardness that would make him utterly convincing as a lethal existential cutthroat. (Could he do the whole British thing? Of course! He’s a fantastic actor.) Now don’t get me wrong: I worship Daniel Craig. Especially given that there’s an American who was put on earth to play Bond: Jon Hamm. But given how often British actors are now hired to play Americans (do most audiences even know that performers from Carey Mulligan to Charlie Hunnam hail from across the pond?), the time may have come to break that tradition. But (as is often the case in his big screen appearances) he’s too reined in by the family-friendly context – the film goes out with a PG-13 rating in the US – to be really effective and spark the film into life.No American actor has ever been cast in the role of James Bond. The script by Michael LeSieur ( You, Me, and Dupree) provides very little for the cast to build on and even with comedy dab hand Greg Mottola ( Superbad and Adventureland) directing the film often feels flat when it should be light-footed.ĭoing a variation on his familiar deadpan act, Galifianakis produces most of the mildly funny moments as the clueless yet well meaning Jeff. All that’s left after that is for the two couples to exchange the obligatory life lessons about the value of sincerity and the need to be open to adventure. Scenes with Patton Oswalt (from TV’s Veep) as an insecure villain called Bruce Springstein (pronounced ‘Spring-stine’) mostly misfire, and the action finale delivers little in the way of thrills. Once the mystery is solved and the two couples join forces, however, the film seems to lose direction. The action follows the Gaffneys’ attempts first to befriend the Joneses – Jeff and Tim’s bromantic date in a dodgy Chinese restaurant is a fun sequence – and then to uncover their real identities as covert operatives for the CIA. Hamm (in his first significant big screen role since the end of Mad Men) and Gadot (introduced as the new Wonder Woman in this year’s Batman v Superman) are the Gaffney’s sophisticated, gorgeous and mysterious new cul-de-sac neighbours Tim and Natalie Jones. Galifianakis (most recently seen in Masterminds) and Fisher (from the upcoming Nocturnal Animals) anchor the story as Jeff and Karen Gaffney, a cosy, slightly bored suburban couple trying to adjust to their first summer without the kids at home. Without the global star power of spy romps like Brangelina’s Mr & Mrs Smith and Cruise-Cameron’s Knight and Day, however, getting attention at the box office won’t be an easy mission. Originally set for a spring launch that might have better suited its undemanding tone, the Fox release arrives in the US and the UK on October 21, as counter programming to pre-Halloween horror and early award season contenders. Once the mystery is solved and the two couples join forces, however, the film seems to lose direction And that’s a real problem for a romantic action comedy that’s always going more for humour, with a touch of sweet-natured romance, than thrills. Keeping Up with the Jonses may have twice the talent of other outings in the spy-couple sub-genre – Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot play the husband-and-wife spooks, Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher their bumbling foils – but its laugh quotient is pretty low.
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