Couples Retreat: Tropical Disappointment

I guess when you have a movie starring Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau the comedic bar may be set a wee bit high at the onset. Add a stacked deck of talented castmates, and the average moviegoer’s expectations continue to soar – which is probably why “Couples Retreat” seems to fall short on entertainment value. I will say this, though: it’s not nearly as bad as most reviews are making it out to be, the rest of the cinematic community is overreacting. Sure, the plot is implausible and the ending is beyond lame – but I did laugh out loud several times, which is more than I can say for lots of other flicks. Also, if you’re going to make a movie that no one expects to win any awards, it doesn’t hurt to film it in paradise – literally.

The paradise I’m referring to is the fictional “Eden” resort in Bora Bora, which really does look like a screensaver, the movie said it best. Eden offers couples a chance to work on their ailing relationships while in a technology-free isolated tropical setting. Jason and Cynthia (Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell), who play the overly uptight couple whose marriage is suffering because they can’t conceive, convince their friends to go with them to Eden after finding an excellent group rate. Favreau and Kristin Davis play the high school sweethearts who can’t stand the sight of each other anymore, Malin Akerman and Vaughn play the couple who have let their busy lives and children push all romance out of the picture, and Faizon Love’s character is in the midst of a divorce so he brings his new (and considerably younger) girlfriend to the island, played by Kali Hawk.

Once in Eden, the couples find themselves subjected to early morning counseling sessions with therapists like Ken Jeong (who is in every single movie in 2009, I’m convinced) and taking part in trust building activities. Predictably, this quickly wears on the couples, so what ensues are antics like getting drunk, swimming with sharks, a Guitar Hero showdown and a trip to the more upbeat ‘singles’ side of the resort – but not necessarily in that order. It should be said that Bateman and Bell’s characters are the most entertaining to watch, and even though I love Vince Vaughn I wanted to throw his character into a volcano after about 30 minutes. Additionally, the product placement in the movie was shameless, Favreau and Davis were mismatched and Faizon Love and Kali Hawk were relegated to ‘token black couple’ status, which I found insulting.

It seemed like one of those movies where having big name actors sign on to star in the movie (namely Vaughn and Favreau, who co-wrote the film and then looped in their friend director Peter Billingsley) was the catalyst for the rest of the notable actors to jump on board because they heard who was involved. The catch is that the film doesn’t fully deliver as a romantic comedy, even though it is entirely harmless and doesn’t drag out. “Swingers” it is not, but I wouldn’t necessarily count this movie out at the box office either – especially considering so many other October releases are horror-centric. Bottom line is that you’d be equally (or more so) justified in Netflix’ing “Couples Retreat” because it may be set in paradise, but it checks out early.