MOVIE REVIEW: COUPLES RETREAT
Couples Retreat
Director: Peter Billingsley
Screenplay: Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Dana Fox
TRT: 107 Minutes (PG-13) For sexual content and language.
Cast
Vince Vaughn as Dave
Jason Bateman as Jason
Jon Favreau as Joey
Faizon Love as Shane
Kristin Davis as Lucy
Malin Akerman as Ronnie
Kristen Bell as Cynthia
Jean Reno as Marcel
By Marcus Thorpe:
Over the years if you saw that Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn were teaming up on a film, it would be enough to get me to the movies and many of you too. They just have that “something” that is hard to capture, it’s chemistry, friendship, just plain funny. For their latest collaboration “Couples Retreat” the dynamic duo recruit 4 others to share in the fun. By the end of this one you might be thinking what I did, I think I just fell into the movie trailer syndrome.
The story of Couples Retreat focuses on 3 couples going through different live changing events. One couple is finding the joy and challenges of parenthood, one is trying to start a family and finding the challenges of success, and the other is dealing with a divorce and exploring his mid-life crisis with a young lady about half his age. To try and save a marriage Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell’s characters decide the only option is to get to a couples building, jet skiing, eating and drinking Mecca known as the Disneyland for adults. After some arm twisting, they talk everyone else into getting on board and shipping out.
There were points in the movie where I was wondering if these stars really came to work wanting to make a good movie, or if they were in it so they could have a get-a-way. Noboby seems like they are trying to sell this as “real”. Vaughn delivers his typical performance, where the jokes come fast and furious, some hit but many more miss the mark. Bateman plays a weak yet controlling husband who is milk-toast bland. Faizon Love’s character is probably the most interesting yet the least focused on. He is divorced, trying to find comfort in a 20 year old who wants to party when the overweight Shane just can’t keep up. Favreau’s Joey is a guy in a bad marriage who is just thinking if the next woman he can cheat on his wife with, ho-hum. Kristin Davis is the female counterpart to Joey, ho-hum, although she looks pretty nice is a bathing suit! Kristen Bell does a nice job as Cynthia, wanting to start a family, but holding her feelings in until the end when she can’t do it anymore. Malin Akerman is Ronnie and is solid, yet unspectacular.
More unspectacular though is the writing. It’s just not as funny as you would want a movie like this to be. There are long scenes where there is so much talk you get lost in the message, and you just don’t find it humorous. The script plays it safe, takes no chances, doesn’t even seem like it wants to keep your attention. By the end, it felt a lot like Vaughn’s “The Break-Up” when all the couples get to the breaking point, you don’t really root for any of them to make it. If you are going to make a couples movie, there has to be a reason for the audience to fall in love with the thought of them working to stay together, I don’t think it happens here.
As for the trailer syndrome I mentioned earlier, if you saw the previews for this movie weeks ago, you may have thought, that movie looks hilarious! I know I did! As it turns out just like the couples felt like they got duped by getting to the island for fun, then roped into couples building, movie audiences may feel like they got duped. Sold as a side-splitting comedy, you might like it, but not as much as you’d hoped. The views of this resort are breathtaking, it makes you think that a vacation sounds pretty good. I have to admit, I would love to go to Eden, I just don’t want to go with these 3 couples or this movie!
Peacock Feathers (2 1/2 out of 5)
MT
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What did you think of Couples Retreat or this review? Please log in and leave your comments below!!!
Posted by
on 10/15 at 08:07 AM
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Comments
I thought this was a very good review. The newspaper reviews are never detailed enough for me but yours are.
I’ve seen & read several reviews of this movie. Yours, at least, is long enough to help me decide whether I should bother seeing it.
Please keep posting your movie reviews.
Posted by Pat Gallagher on 10/15 at 03:40 PM-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a UPS account but I know USPS is cheaper and probably more attractive to customers. Plus I am in California, so do I add the 8.25% sales tax? Online Tax Preparation
Posted by wcm123 on 02/24 at 08:16 AM-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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