Movies
Associated Press
This image released by Twentieth Century Fox shows, Gal Gadot, left, and Jon Hamm in "Keeping Up With The Joneses.
"Keeping Up With the Joneses" misfires By JAKE COYLE Associated Press The modern studio comedy increasingly feels limp, suffocated by the financial imperatives of high-concept plots and desperately in search of signs of life. Greg Mottola's "Keeping Up With the Joneses" is, like many before it, fine enough. But it mostly goes down as another collection of funny people stuck in too narrowly clichĂŠd roles in an overly familiar story. It's now been more than 10 years since "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" and five since "Bridesmaids." (Feel old yet?) There have, undoubtedly, been good comedies since, namely things with Melissa McCarthy in them, Noah Baumbach's "Frances Ha" and
anything Wes Anderson is putting out. But there has been perhaps no greater casualty to the constrictions of blockbuster-centric Hollywood than comedy. The freedom necessary for comedy to thrive is mostly found on television; the action is with "Broad City," ''Atlanta," ''Inside Amy Schumer" and others. Mottola, the director of "Adventureland" and "Superbad," has been at the center of comedy on both the big screen and on TV ("Arrested Development," the underrated "Clear History"), but "Keeping Up With the Joneses," written by Michael LeSieur ("You, Me and Dupree") doesn't have much of the naturalism that has distinguished his best. Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher play Jeff and Karen Gaffney, a regular suburbanite
couple experiencing an empty nest for the first time with their kids away at summer camp. An impossibly stylish and accomplished couple moves in next door, the Joneses (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot, taking a break from her Wonder Woman duties). He's a travel writer who can blow his own glass; she writes a cooking blog and wears cocktail dresses to neighborhood barbeques. But what makes the Joneses most jealous of them is their easy affection with one another. Though its name is taken from the statusobsessed phrase first made famous by a 1913 comic strip and coopted by the Kardashians, this "Keeping Up With the Joneses" is a comedy about marital passion rekindled. That the Joneses are putting up a facade is evident from the start, but the movie cleverly
subverts the nature of their secret identities. They are elite government spies of some sort, but not as far removed from the normal squabbles and challenges of marriage as you might think. The collision of international espionage thrills and quiet suburban life has become familiar by now thanks to the likes of "The Matador," ''Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "The Americans." When the bullets start flying, "Keeping Up With the Jones" has some moves of its own, thanks to the talents of Galifianakis (here playing a naive, aw-shucks character that limits him) and the always game Fisher. Only Hamm manages to create a three-dimensional character: a James Bond secretly yearning to be a regular guy.
Cruise's Reacher falls short in sequel By ROBERT GRUBAUGH For The Edge I laughed many times while watching the new release "Keeping Up with the Joneses", but it wasn't really a film that you can take much sustenance from. There was no meat on the bone (and certainly not Gal Gadot's). The most interesting thing I found about it was that I've stayed in the Atlanta hotel where the climactic final act is set and filmed. I found better results with a Tom Cruise franchise sequel called "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back", a slightly inferior sequel that's not as good as the 2012 original, but does capture the addition of a female co-lead, something that suits the colossally-masculine storyline well. Tw o c o n c u r r e n t p l o t s r u n
throughout "Never Go Back". The predominant one features Reacher (Cruise) thumbing his way to Washington, D.C. to a dinner date with the new commander of his old unit, the 110th Military Police. He'd helped her settle a matter involving some corrupt soldiers illegally transporting slave labor under the nose of a crooked sheriff. In return, Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) has agreed to a night out that is as close to a date as the investigator/ drifter has seen in either of his t w o f e a t u re f i l m s . W h e n h e arrives to the base, Reacher finds Turner arrested for espionage and takes it none too lightly. He's mistrustful and angry when Ar m y b o s s e s te ll him things . I t ' s a d a n g e ro u s c o m b i n a t i o n for someone that's no longer on their side, but fully committed to
the cause and training that such an institution stands for. When subordinates confirm Turner's integrity and character, Reacher trusts his own instincts and gets involved. He breaks her free of a military prison just as henchman from a contractor agency show up to assassinate her. The whole thing is slick, action-packed, and more than a little farfetched. Drug and weapons trading out of the Middle East are the impetus for all of it. Plot Point #2 comes as Reacher a n d Tu r n e r a r e f l e e i n g f r o m the c o ns p irato rial p urs uit. A rebellious teen girl (Danika Ya r o s h ) i s b r o u g h t t o t h e i r attention as a potentially endangered civilian. It seems t h a t s i n c e h i s d i s c h a rg e , t h e girl's mother had filed paternity paperwork with the government
in hopes of getting child support money for raising who she claims is Jack Reacher's daughter Samantha. Unsure of her actual parentage, Reacher does the honorable thing and looks out for her well-being. It's kind of him to do because The Hunter (Patrick Heusinger) is hot on their tails and he'd love to carve her up with his knife just to prove a point that he's crazier and more deadly than even the en igmatic an d legen dar y J ack Reacher. Samantha is rebellious because she's pretty much raised herself due to an absentee father and a drug-addled (and unseen) m o t h e r. S h e ' s a l t e r n a t e l y a street-smart kid and a damsel in distress that easily frustrates audiences throughout most of her scenes. Combined, the two stories -
November 3, 2016
which are based largely on Lee Child's eighteenth Reacher novel from 2013 - make for an affair that is a little too long and a lot too violent in some cases. The addition of Susan Turner, an alluring beauty and a strong officer, gives Reacher someone to really work off as the two figure o u t t h e i r p re d i c a m e n t . S h e ' s just as capable of strangling a suspect to death (with a garden hose in this case) as he is and that's what qualifies for movie character diversity these days. I'll take it where I can get it. "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" r u n s 11 8 m i n u t e s a n d i s r a t e d PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, some bloody images, language, and thematic elements. I give this film two and a half stars out of four.
On the Edge of the Weekend
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