It's not hard Keeping Up with the Joneses when their greatest achievement is bad sitcom humor applied to a tired, generic story involving bored suburban parents drawn into the world of espionage by their perfect, secret spy neighbors.

Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, Greg Mottola directed a clever and hilarious movie called Superbad, but now he's making boring crap like this, the equivalent of a stretched out TV episode with material that fails to take advantage of its talented cast. Those looking for nothing more than mindless fluff and who are still amused by network comedies may find something to enjoy, but Keeping Up with the Joneses is a bland, largely unfunny production that makes no substantial case for its existence.

There are some funny moments, though many of those are shown in the trailers. Zack Galifianakis is essentially what you'd expect, marginally funny at times but for the most part left floundering as he desperately claws for a joke that sticks. Isla Fisher, who can be funny in the right role, also has her moments, but stuck in a routinely scripted role, she doesn't have many opportunities to shine. Gal Gadot and Jon Hamm are both fine; relegated to pretty-looking stereotypes by the limiting screenplay by Michael lesieur, they too are left scrounging for any comedy juice they can squeeze out of the tepid manuscript.

Go in expecting nothing more than an action-comedy that wears its desperation on its sleeves and you may be moderately entertained, but Keeping Up with the Joneses isn't very funny or fun. Best try keeping up with another family.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.