Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau, Malin Akerman, Kristen Bell, Kristin Davis
Director: Peter Billingsley (first major feature)
Running Time: 1 hr 47 min
Release Date: Oct. 9, 2009
Budget: $70 million
Average Critics’ Score: 20%
“The humor isn’t always highbrow, but it works.” Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune
“…absolutely, inexcusably terrible.” Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
Though it boasts a funny trailer and is full of big-name stars, Couple’s Retreat was as disappointing as going on a tropical vacation only to have it rain. Even with Billingsley (A Christmas Story’s Ralphie) for a director and Vaughn and Favreau (the writers of Swingers) as the scribes, this comedy about four emotionally stunted couples unexpectedly forced to confront their problems when they travel to an idyllic island is uninspired and only occasionally funny. It’s meant to offer a profound take on relationships, but instead Retreat is simply a series of juvenile, gross-out antics. A cloying, unrealistic ending is hastily added on, but the characters were either too underdeveloped or unlikable to care anyway.
