Couples Retreat (2009)

Dave (Vince Vaughn) and Ronnie (Malin Åkerman) are a loving couple with two little sons. Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy Tanzini (Kristin Davis) are high school sweethearts with 18 year old daughter Lacey who is about to go to college. Shane (Faizon Love) is separated from his wife and is with a much younger girlfriend Trudy (Kali Hawk). Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia Smith (Kristen Bell) are unable to conceive and considering divorce. They give a PowerPoint presentation to entice the other three couples to go to therapy resort Eden the next week. The retreat is divided into Eden West for couples and Eden East for singles. Marcel (Jean Reno) is the unusual therapist owner. He is joined by therapists Ken Jeong, John Michael Higgins, Charlotte Cornwell and Amy Hill. Then there is the overly amorous yoga instructor Salvadore (Carlos Ponce).I actually like the various couples and their family in the first 20 minutes. The peeing in the store is a fun joke. This could be a fun family movie with a good cast of couples. I really don't like the resort. The whole vibe for the movie turns. The loving couples become annoyingly combative. The nice family feel turns into a sleazy sex romp and not a good one. Every instructor is annoying. The whole couple's therapy is annoyingly stupid and not funny stupid. I don't want to be in their therapy sessions any more than some of those characters. The shark feeding is kinda funny but very limited.

The movie has really an all star cast which is probably the main thing that drives people to it. I definitely got curious when I saw Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman and Kristin Davis. The rest of cast are all very famous as well. It is a bit sad that it didn't work out to be as promising as it was.Actually the start is pretty good. When we are introduced to the characters and the situation it seems like it will be a great movie. Only the problem is that the characters stay pretty much on the same tune all movie long. And the jokes seem to be repeated over and over together with the clichés until the very predictable ending.I think one of the mistakes was to make this movie PG 13. This way all the dirty humor they attempted was too infantile, not risky enough and at the same time such young people would not be interested in such a movie, teenagers don't like to watch movies about "old people".But it is not too bad. Just don't expect too much. Just an all star cast with great actors, beautiful scenery and some lighthearted humor that is not very clever or original.

Four couples go on a retreat to a tropical island in the Caribbean to work on their marriages,, what they don't realize is that participation in therapy sessions is mandatory and not optional,, lot's of crude sexual humor and behavior abound in this one,, Vince Vaughn is his usual funny, crude lovable troublemaker always coming up with some crude or perverted joke. it seems though Hollywood has hit the limit with these kinds of movies recently,, this one is mostly re hashed from other movies I felt,, it's not gonna win any Oscars, but then again it's not bottom of barrel trash either, I guess it all depends on what you are looking for from this movie when you watch it,, for me I was looking for laughter, and sexual humor thrown in, it's middle of the road average,, no more no less.

I must admit to being a fan of Vince Vaughan. I'm pretty sure he has no pretensions of being a great actor and he always seems to play the same character but it's a likable and charming character nonetheless. This is a film for 30 something plus couples to watch and enjoy. It's not a film that will particularly appeal to a younger audience or the kind of guy that thinks the only good film has to include some kind of superhero. For the silent majority however this is a very entertaining and watchable film with plenty of laughs throughout. Yes you know how it will end but the fun is watching the characters get there. Of the people I know who watched this all have enjoyed it which makes a rating of 5.4 even more laughable. The vast majority of voters on here are men however and therefore any film not totally aimed at male testosterone is always going to be unfairly rated on here. Just note that this film made a large profit and rightly so.The cast is first rate and there are no weak performances. They all seemed to be having a good time and that shone through in their performances. This is an excellent comedy and if you like Vince Vaughan i'm pretty sure you'll like this.