In the vein of True Lies and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the new action comedy Keeping Up With The Joneses presents us with a suburban landscape where everything looks peaceful on the surface, but underneath are secrets about to be revealed in a most explosive way.
We’re introduced to an innocent couple, Jeff (Zach Galifianakis) and Karen Gaffney (Isla Fisher), who finally have their house to themselves now that their kids are off at summer camp. It isn’t long though before they’re greeted by new neighbors in the form of Tim (Jon Hamm) and Natalie Jones (Gal Godot), a sexy couple who travel from one country to the next. The Gaffneys are eager to befriend the Joneses but are equally suspicious of them. Turns out they’re right, too, as the Joneses are actually covert operatives out to infiltrate the company that Jeff works at.
Keeping Up With The Joneses was directed by Greg Mottola, who previously helmed the hilarious Superbad and the critically acclaimed Adventureland, and while he gives us characters who remind us of suburbanites and spies from other movies, he also renders them as very human and with the same problems we all face in our own lives. In short, this is not your typical action comedy.
Last week, we got to catch up with the cast of Keeping Up With The Joneses in Los Angeles during the movie’s press day. In our exclusive interview with Hamm and Galifianakis, they discussed the challenges of doing comedy on the big screen and finding the balance between playing for laughs and letting the laughs come from the actions of the characters.
Hear what the two actors had to say in the interview above and be sure to check out Keeping Up With The Joneses when it arrives in theatres on October 20th.