Keeping Up With The Joneses

There's this weird genre that has popped up lately where spies or assassins move to the suburbs and inevitably get caught up in hijinks. Examples are generally along the line of Killers or Mr and Mrs Smith. Invariably the result is never a good one because they always seem to be missed opportunities. While there are some decent moments and some great actors in Keeping Up With The Joneses, it also happens to miss the mark.

Jeff (Zach Galifianakis) and Karen Gaffney (Isla Fisher) are just a regular couple living in the suburbs of Atlanta. Jeff works as the HR person at an aerospace company and Karen works as an interior designer. They are happy together in their small community and get excited when they see that some new neighbours are moving in. These new neighbours turn out to be the complete opposite to them. Tim Jones (Jon Hamm) is a travel writer whose hobby is glass blowing. His wife Natalie (Gal Gadot) runs a food blog and donates to charity. While they seem like the perfect neighbours to have, Karen does some digging and finds that they are actually spies looking into the company that Jeff works for.

As fun as the concept of highly trained professionals moving into suburbia is, it never pans out the way you want. This is especially true when it comes to comedies that use the premise. There aren't enough jokes to fill out the entire thing and you want to put minimal action in there because it would become an action movie otherwise. Also the way that this movie treats Gal Gadot is really bizarre. I'm not one to jump up and down about the treatment of women in movies, but what they've done here is made a character that is contrary to the concept. Natalie is supposed to be this physically strong spy, but she ends up being a character that is just there to be considered attractive. It also falls into the same traps as makeover movies from the 80s and 90s. They take Isla Fisher's character and make wear unattractive clothes, but 'fix' her by putting her in some lingerie or a tight dress.

The movie's casting is a strong choice that helps with the lack of written jokes. Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher are good comedic staples with which to build on. Galifianakis is always funniest when playing a guy from the south as he has mastered the accent pretty well. I was a bit unsure of what was going on with Fisher's accent. I thought she was going for a similar that Rose Byrne has been doing lately where she plays Australian characters, but she seemed to bounce between the two. Jon Hamm has shown now that he is pretty good at playing a goofy character. While he is supposed to be serious, there were moments that you could tell he was having fun. Comedian Bobby Lee also turns up in a stereotypical Asian role as the proprietor of a Chinese snake restaurant that's pretty funny. Patton Oswalt appears at the end as the bad guy, but has very little time and doesn't have a chance to get a good footing.

Keeping Up With the Joneses is not the best comedy to come out this year. It's not bad as such, but there is a lot of down time between jokes. These instances are glaringly obvious and just make for some hollow viewing.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

I figured out while watching this movie that the story I really want to see is the love story between Thomas and Martha Wayne (Batman's parents) because maybe I'll actually feel some emotion after seeing them get shot for the thousandth time. But alas this isn't that movie. It's a movie about Superman, so let's get to it.

Set two years after the events of Man of Steel and America is still reeling after Superman (Henry Cavill) destroyed Metropolis City while trying to defeat General Zod. Several people are upset about this and none more so than billionaire Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck). As his crime fighting alter ego Batman, he is dedicated to find a way to show people that Supes is not the hero that everyone wants him to be. Meanwhile, Clark Kent is also trying to write a story showing that Batman is a reckless danger on Gotham City. Between the two dynamos is Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), who is plotting for each hero to bring down the other, all the while doing research in both metahumans (AKA future movie heroes) like Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) and finding a way to turn the people of the world against Superman.

As you can probably tell from that description, there's a lot going on in this movie. And that's a huge problem that is endemic to a lot of these superhero movies. The studios feel as though audiences are stupid and have to cram as much as possible in a single movie to sell movies that have not yet even been written. Batman v Superman has this in spades, introducing every future superhero in the DC Universe, even if it's only for two seconds at a time. These other hero cameos also just serve as a distraction that the film that you're currently watching isn't any good. This is because it is too full. The convoluted plot tries to fit in two introductions of new characters, although Batman really doesn't need any introduction, and Wonder Woman is really only introduced by maybe five lines of dialogue that doesn't give any insight at all to who she is or where she comes from. And in the middle of all this happening, we are treated to a lengthy and jarring dream sequences that diehard comic fans will be able to link to the Flashpoint storyline, but regular moviegoers might get lost with (if you're part of the latter group, maybe just take a squiz at that link). This really could have been chopped out to make a more streamline story.

The aesthetics of this movie are nothing we haven't seen before either. A lot of CGI smash on smashfest that is just moved to an abandoned part of Gotham because people got so up in arms about that happening in Man of Steel. Newsflash Zack Snyder, taking the people out of the equation won't change people's opinions on the wonton destruction of cities. Side note: while we're on Gotham City, did anyone else notice that it seemed really close to Metropolis, almost as if it were in the Greater Metropolis Area? Because you can definitely see the Bat-signal from Metropolis. Back to visuals now. Why was everything slowed down? I can get the need for some stylising of the fight sequences, but there's a whole slo-mo montage of Superman doing his super thing all around the world. I get that it's building dramatic tension, but this movie is way too dramatic for it's own good.

None of this movie's performances warrant anything to write about, but I will anyway because you know I'm that kind of guy. But because there's so many, I'll be brief about each. Henry Cavill could really instil some of his own real-life charm because Superman is too dark and brooding. On the flip side, Ben Affleck barely brooded at all, which is the only thing Batman is really good at. Up until the last five to ten minutes Gal Gadot was really only eye candy for male teenagers and then she became a badass with the only good musical theme in the whole movie. Jesse Eisenberg was over the top as a character who is supposed to be a restrained genius, not the Joker. Jeremy Irons was a very believable Alfred and the total opposite to Michael Caine, so I'm torn there. Laurence Fishburne was too wacky as Perry White this time round. Tao Okamoto, Callan Mulvey and Scoot McNairy weren't in it enough for my liking.

Five minutes into this movie, I found myself thinking, "This movie needs more Wes Bentley." If you're as confused by that sentence as I am, then allow me to explain. If a movie doesn't impress me in the first five minutes, I often think that only the appearance of Wes Bentley will make it better for me. Granted, it's not a thought I find myself with often, but this was definitely one of them. The lack of Wes and the frustrating slowness of Batman v Superman left me sadder than Ben Affleck. Nawww, poor Ben, won't you let us know what's going through that head?

Triple 9

Aussie director John Hillcoat is no stranger to making brutally violent films. Triple 9 is no exception to this rule, showing the brutal lengths that people will go to when their backs are against the wall. While it is an enjoyable heist movie, it can at times seem a bit predictable and some of the character motivations aren't even evident.

In Atlanta, a small crew of criminals led by Michael Atwood (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are made to pull a heist on a bank by Russian mobster Irina Vlaslov (Kate Winslet). Among the crew are two corrupt cops, Marcus Belmont (Anthony Mackie) and Franco Rodriguez (Clifton Collins Jr), as well as brothers Russell (Norman Reedus) and Gabe (Aaron Paul). Despite the fact that they pulled off the heist without a hitch, the crew are forced to pull another with even higher stakes. To help avoid police attention, they come up with a scheme to murder a police officer, which they know the cops will have a higher priority to get to. They decide upon Chris (Casey Affleck), Marcus' new partner. Meanwhile, Chris' uncle Jeffrey (Woody Harrelson) is investigating the crew.

Triple 9 ends up being a very generic heist movie. It does have some surprises, but it turns out to be very predictable. As you watch it, you can pick out who will turn on who and which characters will end up dying. I suppose that that is one thing where John Hillcoat makes a tiny bit of a difference. Life in this movie is cheap, people die when you think for sure that they are the main character. Maybe that stems from packing the movie with so many big name actors. I felt as though they were all important because of the star power that they brought to the movie. Turns out, they aren't.

Another problem that arises from stacking a movie like this with stars is that no one stands out in any way. Actors like Teresa Palmer, Gal Gadot, Norman Reedus and Michael K. Williams were only cast so that their names could be put on the poster so that people would go see the film. Casey Affleck, who ends up becoming the main character only appears after twenty minutes into the action. Clifton Collins Jr. is the only actor to give a truly good performance as the surprising second villain only due to the fact that he has no star power and has to work to be noticed. Kate Winslet is also good, but only when you compare how different her role here compared to Rose in Titanic is.

All in all Triple 9 is a movie that you're going to watch for the action over the story. It has surprisingly little heart. If anything you're not going to ever want to go to Atlanta.

New Wonder Woman and Batman pics

I know we seem to be focused on the next Superman movie at this here blog, but until we get some buzz on Star Wars, it'll have to do. This is probably the biggest DC related news to come out of the San Diego Comic-Con, new pics of both Ben Affleck as Batman and the first look at Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman.

Tell us what you think in the comments below.