Joneses, The

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

The Joneses turns out to be a smart little comedy that tosses some sharp little darts at our consumer-driven culture.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The beauty of The Joneses is that the salesmen are as much the victims as the people they're deceiving.

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

Before it gives itself a chance to deliver on that promise, however, it morphs into something different -- something often resembling a soap opera, just with prettier sets and less-passionate smooching.

Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore

The Joneses manages a deft blend of the sexy, the sad and the silly. And Borte doles out his secrets and surprises in ways that make it easy to keep up with these Joneses.

St. Petersburg Times Steve Persall

Except for slipping on a third-act soapbox, The Joneses is a deft allegory of the greed and coveting that led to the recession. At times, you wonder if something like this scam could really happen, or does.

New York Observer Rex Reed

Surprising, inventive and crisply, merrily written and directed by Derrick Borte, The Joneses is a brisk, captivating entertainment. Think Ozzie and Harriet on speed.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

A sharp sendup of suburban conformity and American materialism, The Joneses does burn through its credit by the end. But it's flashy enough to catch our eye, and keep our interest nearly all the way through.

Washington Post Dan Kois

Unfortunately, the movie's second half drags, never again achieving the first half's level of narrative dexterity.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Crass materialism and ridiculous marketing ploys are skewered by writer/director Derrick Borte in this uneven cautionary tale that starts off incisively funny, then devolves into preachiness.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

The spoof of consumerism scores some predictable points, but the tidy ending is a sell-out to the ultimate marketing machine: Hollywood.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Though it's entertaining when the tone is light, The Joneses can't quite keep up with this sort of complexity.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Solid performances from David Duchovny (in a cleaned-up version of his Californication character), Demi Moore (defying age), Ben Hollingsworth, and Amber Heard can't save the movie when the screenplay goes as limp as a noodle and turns into a long string of clichés.

Boxoffice Magazine Steve Ramos

Borte supports his jewel of a story idea with dead-on casting, stunning images and product placement that's intentionally heavy-handed.

Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz

His (Borte) film would have been much better had it stuck to its guns as social commentary and not lapsed into a predictable, and predictably lame, love story.

Los Angeles Times Michael Ordona

The ending feels a bit rushed and incongruous, but the film never leaves behind the humanity of its characters.

Empire Helen O'Hara

A meta-satire that doesn't quite come off.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The inevitable breakdown on this commercial façade might have led The Joneses into more disturbing territory, but Borte goes the other direction, away from jagged comedy and toward well-meaning homilies. No sale.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

This cautionary tale might be easier to swallow if all that stuff didn't look like it came from a Sky Mall catalog.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Either this is a tragic family or a satirical one, and the film seems uncertain which way to jump.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

What could have been a biting black comedy taking product placement to the logical extreme instead is so obviously predictable that even a savvy cast led by David Duchovny and Demi Moore can't sell it.

Variety John Anderson

If The Joneses were pure farce, which it isn't, Borte could have gotten away with a lot. Likewise, the picture might have succeeded if it were all a bit funnier and a little less mean-spirited about spending, debt and envy.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

What plays hard and dark for the film's first half goes squishy and blindingly bright as calamity and then outright tragedy lead to the saw-it-coming resolution writer-director Derrick Borte thinks is more sincere than it actually plays.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

An overobvious and underwhelming satire about American consumerism run amok.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Writer-director Derrick Borte brings a heavy hand to the comedy and an even heavier one to the drama.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Duchovny and Moore have their moments; they're like two preening sharks working on commission.

Boston Globe Janice Page

It’s cute and clever to a point -- especially if you don’t know much about the film’s premise going in -- but then the cleverness runs on like the one-note punch line of an interminable “Saturday Night Live’’ sketch, sponsored by Audi.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

As the shills reveal their souls, the movie turns into an exercise in the very phoniness it initially set out to expose. And since you’ve already paid for the ticket, you might end up feeling cheated.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Borte may have lost his way on this film, but there is one thing he has done for America: He has demonstrated the correct way of spelling the plural of the surname Jones. Grammarians, if few others, will be satisfied.

Time Out New York Aaron Hillis

The spot-on cast almost holds the movie together, but whatever potential this timely premise has is wasted on reworking the same gag about overconsumption.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Slick as a pig and reeking of phony sympathy for recession-wracked consumers, The Joneses is a black comedy about stealth marketing made by a filmmaker who's evidently much too close to the subject to bite the hand that feeds him.