Movies

Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau Should Have Retreated from Couples Retreat

A A A Comments (8) By Nick Pinkerton Thursday, Oct 8 2009

Couples, retreat. In the latest from Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau (co-starring and co-writing), we learn that one compelling reason to make a life commitment is so you will always have someone to eat with at Applebee’s.

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The movie’s cumulative idea is that, forgetting the delusions of midlife panic, this is all there is, you’re already living the best possible life — a message of sedentary wisdom betrayed when the actual film is as undeniably dreary as a plate of gummy Chicken Parmesan Tanglers.

Vaughn, Favreau (flagrantly shirtless), Jason Bateman, and Faizon Love are four buddies, just “regular guys”—meaning, as always, puffy, dull-minded lunks, with Vaughn increasingly being Jim Belushi’s heir-apparent. They take their respective significant others on a group vacation to an island paradise, along with maybe 12 pages of sitcomic script outline, to be riffed out into feature length.

Arriving at the Eden Resort, our beer-commercial heroes are menaced by enforced couple's therapy and the resort’s staff of Speedo-wearing homo-macho Euro-Hispanic Others (Jean Reno, Carlos Ponce), who put them through yoga humpings and reality-TV-type challenges intended to renew the spark missing from their relationships.

The presence of Bateman begs comparison with the funnier-while-thematically-similar Extract, though Retreatalso recalls Voyage in Italy, if Rossellini replaced intimate human insight with lowest-common-denominator doody-boner-bare butt-jackoff haw-haws.

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Carrie 10/09/2009 9:57:00 PM

Wow, Nick Pinkerton should retreat from this review.
Tim 10/09/2009 9:53:00 PM

The guy that did this review is a joke, you are reviewing this movie for everyone so why would you make it so difficult to understand? Based on the review you wrote I wouldn't take your advice on any movie.
Kameron 10/09/2009 9:45:00 PM

You're an idiot and wouldn't know comedy if it jumped into your World of Warcraft game and presented itself as a character. Stop going to comedy films and expecting to see brokeback mountain you internet hack. Have a nice day
B 10/09/2009 9:02:00 PM

As to commenter, Sean, what the hell are you talking about? The guy is doing his job, saying how awful this movie is, that's what critics do. How was his review racist? What words would confuse an English professor? Sedentary? Man, your comment is about as lame as this movie.
B 10/09/2009 8:57:00 PM

You forgot to also mention how these rather plain (or even unattractive) men somehow inexplicably have gorgeous women as their "significant others." Just not sure how Hollywood execs still haven't grasped the idea that continuing to perpetuate this male fantasy really only serves to alienate the viewing base it seeks to attract. The mere suggestion of it just pisses me off.
Adrian 10/09/2009 8:49:00 PM

Really?!? That is your review. You sound like a Douche!
Angel G 10/09/2009 8:05:00 PM

Good article. Probably won't waste my time with another lame movie!
Sean 10/09/2009 8:02:00 PM

I would like to rate this review.. Hey buddy, its a movie, not a platform for people who think they are smarter than everyone by talking in hyperbole, and using phrases that would confuse English professors. Your attempt to dehumanize the film by offering a racist view (not your own, but what you think the film may exude) of some of the characters is laughable. Once again, it's a movie. Why can't we just get a good review, like " Vince Vaughn is playing the same character he always plays (so for those of us that like his sarcastic, barbaric character, we will know we are in for a treat), Jon Favreau is slowly falling down the B-List of acting, Once again Jason Bateman does a good job of holding a cast together, and Faison is Faison." That would be an honest look, and not some attempt at glory for a writer who couldn't even get a real job as a critic.