I love Zach Galifianakis and all of his crazy performances. Sure not all of them work but for me they always offer up something that stands out good or bad. His latest film Keeping Up With The Joneses teams him up with Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot, but does it offer up more of his usual insane fun or will it be a neighbor not worth getting to know?

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Keeping Up With The Joneses follows a suburban couple who becomes embroiled in an international espionage plot when they discover that their seemingly perfect new neighbors are government spies. Director of Paul and Superbad, Greg Mottola leads the charge in this action comedy that had everything it needed to deliver, but didn’t quite hit the mark. There are some funny moments here and there, but it never fully cuts loose to allow it to step out of anything but average. Galifianakis is way toned down for this role playing a sort of everyman alongside Isla Fisher. Hamm and Gadot are perfect for their roles as the perfect couple and agents which is not a spoiler as it is revealed in the trailers. Where this film struggles mostly is that none of the characters really standout as memorable and could have been played by almost anyone. The story is similar to things we have seen before but just didn’t carry the laughs I was hoping for as a whole. You can pretty much figure out everything that is going to happen throughout the film right until the very end which would have been ok as well had the laughs been more abundant. Instead it walked a safe line of average and in turn failed to bring the action and laughs it could have.  

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This isn’t a bad movie by any means and I was entertained, but being a fan of Galianakis I was hoping for so much more. Filled with a great cast giving average performances and a predictable story that fails to push the limits and you have a film that will be one you either enjoy or do not. In addition to the film this release includes a gallery, deleted scenes, and featurettes that take you behind the scenes of bringing this film to life.