Keeping Up with the Joneses
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: October 21, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
34
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
16
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
IndieWireJude DryOct 19, 2016
The most surprising thing about Keeping Up with the Joneses isn’t that it’s actually funny, but that some touching unlikely friendships emerge amidst the outrageous action sequences. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoOct 20, 2016
The best moments come in seeing Galifianakis’s costars try to keep up with him as he finally, frantically lets loose. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekOct 21, 2016
Still, at its best Keeping Up with the Joneses riffs on something very real: the existential loneliness of living in a place that’s just too perfect. Everyone needs new friends now and then – even ones who make you eat snake. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanOct 18, 2016
An amiable time-killer of an espionage comedy. Read full review
50
The PlaylistWill AshtonOct 20, 2016
Keeping Up with the Joneses sometimes clicks, thanks to the commitment brought by the cast, but it’s too often shackled with a tired plot to really make the most of its potential. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiOct 20, 2016
A wildly inconsequential action comedy that contains a couple of genuine laughs but which otherwise feels like an extended version of its own television ads. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 20, 2016
Lazily written and indifferently filmed, this sendup of action/spy movies rarely works as a satire and becomes downright unbearable when it attempts to do things like character/relationship building. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonOct 20, 2016
Keeping Up With the Joneses is hardly worth the effort. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghOct 20, 2016
Relying wholly on good casting and the charisma of its actors, big and small, to elevate too-familiar material, the film’s stale humor hinges on two faulty premises: That the suburbs are inscrutable and that the people who live in them are clueless. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyDevan CogganOct 20, 2016
Between Zach Galifianakis, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm, and Gal Gadot, Keeping Up with the Joneses has a stacked cast, but thanks to a tepid script from Michael LeSieur (You, Me and Dupree), they don’t actually get that much to do. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeOct 20, 2016
Director Greg Mottola deserves some credit for trying to give the film a little bit of cinematic flair, something that’s lacking in many Hollywood comedies these days. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshOct 20, 2016
Galifianakis steals the show as the friendly fussbudget in a performance we've come to expect from him. The enormous potential on screen is tantalizing, which is why the disappointment of failed execution stings. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoOct 18, 2016
Keeping Up With The Jonses plays everything so disappointingly safe. Read full review
40
Total FilmKate StablesNov 2, 2016
Even though the ever-reliable Galifianakis has fun bromancing the stone-faced Hamm, the end result feels like a decaff version of Date Night. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsAllen SalkinOct 19, 2016
In Keeping up with the Joneses, I was unable to focus on Hamm's comedic efforts, so interested was I in the ever-changing cinematography of his slick black hairstyle. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisOct 19, 2016
It’s meant to be thrilling fun, but it never takes off in the way imagined. Read full review
40
Screen DailyJohn HazeltonOct 18, 2016
Keeping Up with the Joneses may have twice the talent of other outings in the spy-couple sub-genre...but its laugh quotient is pretty low. And that’s a real problem for a romantic action comedy that’s always going more for humour, with a touch of sweet-natured romance, than thrills. Read full review
40
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)Oct 17, 2016
An unfortunate misfire that has the odd moment of charm and the odder chuckle, but otherwise isn’t worth keeping up with. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Julia CooperOct 20, 2016
Mottola’s film is the unfortunate result of too much talent met with a clunky script – and the movie crumples under the weight of the cast’s star power. Read full review
38
New York PostSara StewartOct 20, 2016
This flaccid comedy tries to spark your interest by undressing two of its four stars down to their underwear for significant periods of time. More outrageously, neither of those people is Jon Hamm. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenOct 18, 2016
There’s no problem keeping up with these Joneses. The audience is way ahead of them every step of the way. Read full review
37
Washington PostAlan ZilbermanOct 20, 2016
Mottola and LeSieur seem to have actively avoided the pursuit of wisdom, settling for broad gags — and the occasional explosion — instead. Read full review
30
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergOct 20, 2016
The absence of laughs can’t be blamed on a lack of talent. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterJon FroschOct 18, 2016
Stale as week-old bread and every bit as bland, the movie saddles a strong cast with a groaningly ineffectual script (courtesy of Michael LeSieur, who wrote 2006’s You, Me and Dupree) and wastes the director’s gift for bringing lived-in charm and feeling to broad comic premises. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 2, 2016
A caper comedy that neither capers nor gives birth to many laughs. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 20, 2016
Neither funny nor exciting. It’s at best incongruous, the kind of incongruity that seems delightful on the page but not in practice. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 18, 2016
Keeping Up With the Joneses is the sort of strenuous comedy giving zany a bad name. Read full review
20
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 22, 2016
Mottola has made some brilliantly idiosyncratic pictures: Superbad, Adventureland, The Daytrippers. But as Joneses’s director for hire, he’s allowed zero personality. Read full review
20
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 18, 2016
This black hole of a film is a waste of this talented crew’s time, yes, but it’s also a waste of audience time, offering no laughs, no ideas, no fresh perspectives, nothing. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezOct 18, 2016
By the time the film limps toward its Marrakech-set epilogue epilogue, its experiment in social osmosis is as much a failure as its B-sitcom-grade yuks. Read full review
10
Village VoiceBilge EbiriOct 19, 2016
It’s as if somebody wrote out the basic setup, figured they would flesh out the character bits and plot twists and jokes later … and then never got around to it. It’s dispiriting and infuriating all at once. Read full review
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