Keeping Up with the Joneses (film)

Plot

Jeff Gaffney (Zach Galifianakis) works as a Human Resources professional at a Defense contractor company called MBI, based in Atlanta. He and his wife Karen (Isla Fisher) live in a nice cul-de-sac with their two children, who are away at summer camp. They make the acquaintance of their two new neighbors, Tim (Jon Hamm) and Natalie Jones (Gal Gadot). Tim is a travel writer whose hobbies include glassblowing, and Natalie is a social media consultant, cooking blogger and philantropist. They are both impossibly good-looking, accomplished and stylish, yet overly friendly with the Gaffneys.

Karen starts having suspicions about the Joneses when she catches Tim poking around Jeff's den during a neighborhood block party, then witnesses Natalie doing what looks like a dead drop in a café. Karen follows Natalie to the mall, but Natalie confronts her in a dressing room, defusing the situation with some female bonding. Meanwhile, Tim invites Jeff to an underground Chinese restaurant, where Jeff drinks snake wine and is bitten by a severed snake head, forcing Tim to save his life. In exchange, Jeff takes Tim to indoor skydiving, a passion of his that none of his friends share. All the way through, Tim tries to have Jeff talk about his coworkers at the office. One night, with the help of Natalie, Tim sneaks into the MBI building and look over Jeff's emails.

Back at their house, Jeff accidentally breaks the glass sculpture made by Tim that was given to them, revealing a bug among the shards. Realizing the Joneses are spies, Karen decides to sneak into their house to find more evidence. They discover files on Jeff and the other MBI employees and Jeff accidentally stuns Karen with a pen gun. They narrowly escape as the Joneses arrive. Natalie is worried Tim might be getting too close to Jeff, but they reveal to be in love with each other, which is also against the rules. Natalie notices the used pen gun on the floor, and they realize the Gaffneys have broken into their house.

The Gaffneys arrange a private meeting with MBI security officer Carl Pronger (Kevin Dunn) to expose the Joneses, but before Carl can disclose classified details, he is killed by a sniper who also attacks the Gaffneys. They are rescued by the Joneses and a high-speed chase and shootout ensue. The Gaffneys learn that the Joneses are actually trying to discover a treason within MBI. Back in the cul-de-sac, Jeff gives Tim and Natalie some relationship advices, and the two couples bond. After they reentered their house, the Joneses trigger a bomb that blows it up.

Later, after lying to the police about the Joneses, the Gaffneys are frantically preparing to go on the run when the Joneses reappear alive and well in their basement. They kidnapped Jeff's colleague Dan Craverston (Matt Walsh) and his wife Meg (Maribeth Monroe), who are revealed to be trying to sell MBI's experimental microchips to an international arms dealer called "The Scorpion" (Patton Oswalt). When the Scorpion calls on Dan's phone, Jeff answers posing as Dan and arranges a meeting to deliver the microchips.

Jeff and Karen go to the hotel where the meeting takes place, while the Joneses back them up from the roof. The Scorpion turns out to be a former MBI employee named Bruce Springstine, who recognizes Jeff. With their cover blown, Tim radios for back-up, but the operation is aborted and the Gaffneys are declared collateral damage. The Joneses disobey orders and surrender to the Scorpion, but before the latter gets around to kill them, Karen is able to pass a knife to Natalie, giving the Joneses the opportunity to eliminate the Scorpion's henchmen. They escape by jumping off the window into a pool, just before the Scorpion opens the briefcase containing the chips, detonating a bomb that kills him. Proud of their new friends, the Joneses say goodbye and go back to their life of espionage.

The next summer, the Gaffneys visit the café in Marrakesh where the Joneses used to date and happen upon the Joneses who are the middle of a new mission, accidentally blowing their cover and triggering yet another gunfight.

Cast

Production

In March 2014, it was announced that Greg Mottola would direct the film, from a screenplay by Michael LeSieur, with Fox 2000 Pictures having their eyes set on Jon Hamm and Zach Galifianakis to star, Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald producing under their Parkes + MacDonald Image Nation banner, and Marc Resteghini serving as an executive producer. In October 2014, Isla Fisher joined the cast of the film, and the casting of Hamm and Galifianakis was confirmed. In February 2015, Gal Gadot was in negotiations to star in the film. In April 2015, Maribeth Monroe and Matt Walsh also joined the cast.

Filming

Principal photography on the film began on April 20, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Release

The film was originally scheduled to be released on April 1, 2016 but was pushed back to October 21, 2016.

Box office

Keeping Up with the Joneses grossed $14.9 million in North America and $15 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $29.9 million, against a budget of $40 million.

The film was expected to gross $7–9 million from about 3,022 theaters in its opening weekend. However, it only grossed $2 million on its first day and $5.6 million in its opening weekend, finishing 7th at the box office, and making $1 million less than Galifianakis' Masterminds, which debuted to $6.6 million the month before.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 19% based on 109 reviews and an average rating of 4.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Keeping Up with the Joneses squanders a decent premise – and a talented cast full of funny people – on a witless and largely laugh-free suburban spy adventure." On Metacritic, the film has a score 34 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.