28 jul 2010

My Review: Couples Retreat (3/10)

¨Do you have a phone? I need to call God and tell Him that one of His angels is missing. ¨

If you never heard that line before then perhaps you will enjoy this movie which consists of familiar jokes and few laughs and several cheesy dialogues. This movie was really hard to sit through and looked much better in the trailers than it actually was. The cast is an interesting one, but the material they had to work with was very poor. Vince Vaughn teamed up with Iron Man director Jon Favreau and Dana Fox to write the screenplay for this film, and all I can say is that they should stick to directing and acting based on this material. Who shouldn`t stick with directing is Peter Billingsley who really couldn`t prove himself in this his first feature film. He has produced several of Vaughn`s and Favreau`s movies in the past such as Iron Man, Zathura, The Break Up, and Four Christmases, so he is familiar with them. Billingsley is mostly known for his role as little Ralphie from A Christmas Story. In this movie it seems as though the actors just found an excuse to get together and have a good time because no effort was put whatsoever in trying to improve the film. The movie was full of clichés and really bad jokes, and even with my low expectations I was disappointed with this film. It seems as if lately many films with a talented cast aren`t really interested in making a good movie, they just want to have a good time and have fun together (Grown Ups was another example). They might have had fun working together, but for the viewers these films are a huge mess.

A group of friends are convinced of going to a couple`s retreat in a paradisiacal island because Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) are having marital issues and want to find a solution to their problems. The other three couples consist of Dave (Vince Vaughn) and Ronnie (Malin Akerman), Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy (Kristin Davis), and Shane (Faizon Love), who has recently divorced his wife Jennifer (Tasha Smith) and is dating a twenty year old named Trudy (Kali Hawk). The four couples travel together to the resort named Eden hoping to have a good time while Jason and Cynthia receive counseling. To their surprise each couple is forced to participate in the counseling sessions. There is no time for fun and the activities begin at 6 am with sessions with Marcel (Jean Reno), the man responsible for the couple`s therapy. There are actually two sides to the resort, one in the west for singles who have fun and party all the time, while the one in the east is for couples who are trying to work things out and that is where they must remain even though the rest of the couples don`t think they have marital issues. These counseling sessions bring problems even for the couple`s who seemed to be fine. Each couple has a therapist, played by John Higgins, Ken Jeong, Charlotte Cornwell, and Amy Hill. They also have a yoga instructor who like to wear as little clothes as possible, Salvatore (Carlos Ponce), who doesn`t consider personal space. All of a sudden the tropical island doesn`t seem to have been a good idea for any of them.

This movie relies heavily on cheap jokes that we have all been familiar with in the past and the film really doesn`t work as a comedy. The actors are wasted because the material they had to work with was just terrible. Vince Vaughn was probably the funniest in the movie, but I was really disappointed with the screenplay which he helped write. Jon Favreau has directed some good films as well, but in this movie he just seemed to have his mind on resting and having a good time before continuing to focus on the Iron Man sequel. The supporting cast couldn`t do much to save the movie either. Jean Reno is a funny man, but in this film he had nothing fresh to bring to the table. The same thing can be said about Ken Jeong who was extremely funny in The Hangover and Role Models, but in this movie he simply goes by unnoticed. This is a comedy you should stay away from, don`t let yourself be fooled by the trailers because there is nothing funny about this film. The movie just drags for a long time and is extremely long for a comedy. Skip this movie!

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