Les espions d'à côté

Ya know, everyone in real life I know loved this film. It's fun. Then you come here and a bunch of civilians making comments about real life spies and tool bags hating on this flick. Whatever, watch it and consider it entertainment like it was Intended.

I have been looking for this movie everywhere for years. In mid 2021, I happened to know it's now on Hotstar. I jumped on it, however, not in the greatest of moods I expected I would watch this movie in. The Cast is exceptional. Gal Gadot impresses yet again. Zach is not the Zach we have known. He seemed lost through out. He didn't seem to be in character. I didn't expect such from the actor I was watching this movie for. He really didn't do a good job.

Coming to the story, it seemed average, not bad really. For first, it felt as if I'm watching the remake of a bollywood movie, Ajnabee. That movie was on another level. And this one, really kept losing the sense. It didn't have much comedy either, all the comedy it had made it even sillier and dumb. It felt as it it will pick up, but it didn't much. Although the end was convincing enough, however the antagonist was meaningless and weak; very weak. We love to see comedy, however, not with antagonist's silly mistakes making the crowd laugh. An antagonist is expected to be the strongest individual than any in the story. And the movie is a journey of the protagonist's struggle, failure, hard work and ambition, and a process of making him stronger than the the antagonist with such struggle, hard work and failures. This movie lacked the base a story has. For comedy, it tried a lot, still, couldn't deliver. They ticked only one box rightly of a sound story; having a proper climax. They justified the new couple's existence and designed a proper end to it.

I was disappointed with this movie, however, If you are looking to waste time or want to watch something for passing the time, you can give a try. It won't keep you at the edge of your seat though.

"A suburban couple becomes embroiled in an international espionage plot when they discover that their seemingly perfect new neighbors are government spies. " The comedy of "Keeping Up with the Joneses" comes from exaggeration. Mottola and screenwriter Michael LeSieur play up a suburban oasis for Jeff and Karen, with the pair living an idyllic life in a beautiful home. She's an interior designer, he's a practiced corporate negotiator, and while their marriage is stable, it's become flavorless. You've seen these characters before, and the production does little to disturb expectations, highlighting sexual dysfunction in the household, with newfound summertime freedom inspiring thoughts of savage coupling, only to have the pair maintain distance out of habit. There's no twist, no larger message of love. Jeff and Karen are set up as cheerful nothings easily overwhelmed by the arrival of Tim and Natalie, who stun their neighbors with flawless style, beauty, and sophistication. They're incredible, bewitching the community with tales of international travel and the display of impressive dart-throwing skills.

Gal Gadot is always good at playing at the sexy lady and Jon Hamm was good at playing his manipulating and sly character. There's hardly any jokes that work in the movie, and if it wasn't for Isla Fisher and Zach Galifianakis's improvisational Comedy it would've flopped big time! The movie had one of the biggest disappointing showdowns we've ever seen. All in all, it's not a disastrous movie, but your best bet is to rent it on Netflix. 5/10. 2/5 stars.

'KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES': Three Stars (Out of Five)

The new action-comedy from director Greg Mottola; the man who brought us 'SUPERBAD', 'ADVENTURELAND' and 'PAUL' (all great films in my opinion). This movie is sadly not so great. It tells the story of a suburban couple, that suspects their picture-perfect new neighbors might be government spies. The movie was written by Michael LeSieur (who also wrote 'YOU, ME AND DUPREE'); and it stars Zach Galifianakis, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot. It's received mostly poor reviews from critics, and it also bombed at the Box Office. I found it to be mildly amusing, but mostly disappointing.

Jeff Gafney (Galifianakis), and his wife Karen (Fisher), both live a pretty boring and average suburban life. That all changes though, when their new neighbors move in. Tim (Hamm) and Natalie Jones (Gadot) seem too perfect to be true; their both extremely good looking, successful and talented. Karen right away suspects something is off about the two; and when her suspicions turn out to be true, Jeff and Karen both find themselves involved in life threatening international espionage.

The film has a great setup; I really like the characters and the story, it just doesn't follow through that well. Mottola's direction is adequate, and the performances are all good (I'm becoming a huge Gal Gadot fan), it's just not that funny. The action scenes are decent though, for a slapstick comedy like this. I just wish the movie could have been a little funnier. Like I said, it's mildly amusing though.

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'Keeping Up with the Joneses' is a fair Spy-Comedy, that has some fun moments. Its got some laughs, despite all the silliness around. What else did you expect anyway?

'Keeping Up with the Joneses' Synopsis: A suburban couple becomes embroiled in an international espionage plot when they discover that their seemingly perfect new neighbors are government spies.

Zach Galifianakis, Jon Hamm, Isla Fisher and Gal Gadot are the true strengths of 'Keeping Up with the Joneses'. Zach is happily stupid & raises some good laughs, Fisher is fabulous, Hamm is anything but a ham & Gadot is the hottest thing you'll see on the big screen in a long time. The 4 talented actors sportingly deliver in this predictable comedy, showing us their potential yet again.

Michael LeSieur's Screenplay is fair, with some hilarity in store, while Greg Mottola's Direction is satisfactory, at best.

On the whole, 'Keeping Up with the Joneses' is a great way to kill a dull afternoon.