Mr. Movie review: ‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’ like every other spy comedy

Zach Galifianakis plays Jeff Gaffney. He’s married to Karen, played by Ilsa Fisher’s (Now You See Me), who works in human resources at a tech company making top-secret gadgets.

New neighbors move into the neighborhood. They’re played by John Hamm (TV’s Mad Men) and the new Wonder Woman Gal Gadot. Their hot-model looks aren’t lost on anyone in the neighborhood, and everyone vies for their attention.

But Hamm’s Tim Jones seems interested in what Jeff does at work and in his company. Soon, Jeff and Karen figure out the new neighbors are spies, and that throws their lives into chaos and confusion. Are the neighbors trying to steal top-secret stuff or trying to keep someone in the company from stealing them?

Like you’ll care after about 20 minutes of this clunker.

Galifianakis’ schtick is growing old, and he’s not that funny. Hamm’s Hollywood looks make him a good straight man, but Michael LeSieur’s script and Greg Mottola’s (Paul, Superbad) directing let him down. And I don’t know why everyone keeps raving about Gadot, who — and maybe it’s just the roles she’s chosen — gets a zero in the personality department.

The real victim of the movie’s plot mismanagement is Fisher, who is terrific and has lots of fun in the role.

The bottom-line: Keeping Up with the Joneses looks like every other spy comedy you’ve seen. In other words, it — in an odd way — does its own keeping up with the Joneses. Movie Joneses that is.

This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 1:36 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie review: ‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’ like every other spy comedy."