CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Film Review: No Need to Bother ‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’
CHICAGO – “Keeping Up With The Joneses” illustrates how hard it really is to make a funny action comedy. After watching this, I have begun to think that the ones that work are something of anomaly – more often than not they’re like this. An amiable but aimless project that can’t quite grasp what it wants to be and doesn’t have the vision or the laughs to sustain itself.
Rating: 2.0/5.0 |
The film’s inspirations begin and sadly end with the casting. I have no problem with Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher as a domesticated suburban couple who have settled into boring routine. With the kids away at summer camp, they finally have some time to themselves. But all visions of out of control lovemaking are dismissed in a single montage by fears and worry. So they settle in to watch the Good Wife instead, but they’re intrigued and a little wary of the new neighbors. Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot are all you could want as the suspiciously accomplished couple who just moved in next door. But “Keeping Up With The Joneses” unfortunately wastes the considerable talents of everyone involved.
Isla Fisher and Zach Galifianakis in ‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox