Couples Retreat (2009)

If your idea of Comedy consist of juvenile dirty jokes that center around masturbating and sticking your private parts into other peoples faces, then this is your kind of movie. If your idea of Entertainment is watching four narcissistic, sexually depraved adults trying to cope with married life, then this is your kind of movie. The photography and location are fantastic. Casting did a great job in booking the talent. Peter did a good job on the set. The plot could work with better writers. The story was weak and fragmented. I would recommend this movie only if you have absolutely nothing else to do on a cold rainy day and you're craving Popcorn. My rating is F+ for great scenery. The Cast, Crew and Producers should be ashamed.

Fmovies: Can someone please tell me what the problem is . ..

There are better films out there, however i still think this movie delivered laughs .. . Vaughn, Bateman, & Favreau did what they do best, and provided audiences with clever and witty performances. Bell, Davis and Ankerman also did a fantastic job. The scenery is beautiful and breathtaking which only complements the movie even further. Granted the story line was a little weak but what were you expecting?

This isn't a serious drama nor is it a pasionate romance . .. its a comedy! so loosen up and be prepared to watch a fun flick which measures up and delivers .. .

Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) are dangerously close to getting a divorce. In a last ditch effort to save their marriage, they decide to take a vacation to a tropical resort meant to help ailing couples through therapy. Short on cash, they enlist help from their friends to offset the cost through a group rate: the kid-raising Dave (Vince Vaughn) and Ronnie (Malin Akerman), the lovelessly married Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy (Kristen Davis), and the recently divorced Shane (Faizon Love) and his much younger girlfriend Trudy (Kali Hawk). The three other couples think they are just going to have fun and help their friends, but they realize they are in for having their relationships examined as well.

Couples Retreat is not a bad film by any means, but it never seems to strive to be a great one either. It seems perfectly content at being average; a harmless diversion not meant to really do much outside of mildly entertain the audience.

Leaving aside some rather obvious and unexplained age issues between the couples, the film does not throw any punches with its storyline. It never wavers from its basic premise, and stays on a fairly straight and predictable path. Subplots involving the resort's employees materialize and disappear just as fast. And while it does not necessarily drag at any real moments, there are more than a few instances where some scenes are emphasized much longer than others that probably could have done with more emphasis. By the time the film's ending hits, it feels abrupt and almost like a missed opportunity for more gags and characterization that could have only benefited everyone involved. The film does do a great job of blasting through basic backstories for everyone involved within the opening ten minutes, but does not do nearly enough of a job convincing us of the evolution they go through while on vacation.

While some will find this film to be hilarious from beginning to end, I cannot help but wonder how much funnier it really could have been. Yes, there are some hilarious moments sprinkled throughout the film, and some moments that are merely humorous, but there are a ton of awkward and juvenile moments that easily could have been done away with. From the start, the film sets itself up as skewing towards an older crowd, but then relies on gross out and absurd moments (specifically involving Favreau, who co-wrote the script and presumably picked his own part) that belong in a direct-to-video sequel to American Pie. These moments really took me out of the film, and just begged the question why they even bothered placing them in here at all. Worse yet, there are more than a handful of moments that simply are not funny at all, no matter how forced the actors make them.

What I really enjoyed however, as I did with the far superior Forgetting Sarah Marshall, was how it dealt with the very real trauma of a disintegrating relationship. Couples Retreat takes the high road by loading the film with comic imagery and dialogue to offset the devastating and bitter arguments. They never shy away from hiding the truth of the pain and hurt feelings these characters go through, but they tend to not over accentuate these moments for the sake of staying within the realm of comedy. I can appreciate that, because at the end of the day, everyone wants to be entertained at the movies, and watching characters yell and put each other down in a comedy is not anyone's definition of a comedy (although a well made drama like Revolutionary Road can pull it off). I only mention t

Couples Retreat fmovies. I watched this for free On Demand and still felt ripped off. Where do I start? The tone is so uneven that the scenes with the therapists are played straight despite the fact that two of them were played by John Michael Higgins and Ken Jeong, two guys who must struggle NOT to get laughs. It is almost as if they hired the actors and then decided to go a different direction -- if they even put that much thought into it. Before this debacle finally and mercifully staggers to an end it starts to feel as if they are literally making it up as they go along. There is no clear reason for this movie to even exist except as an excuse for the cast and crew to enjoy an nice tropical vacation, squeezing in a little movie work while they are there. Lazy, unprofessional filmmaking that is an insult to the audience.

I'm not sure what movie the other reviewers on here watched but it wasn't the same movie i watched, this movie sucked pretty badly. I could see the whole sarah marshal thing it was trying to replicate but it fell short on every level, the writing was terrible, not at all witty and none of the characters were believable although Vince was OK, he was the exact same character he plays in every movie. The ending felt as if they couldn't think of anything so they just ended it predictibly...

I could go on, but i know they will just keep making these money makers and ill keep paying to see them...

2/10

I don't understand why everyone hates this movie and thinks it isn't funny! This movie is a favorite in my group of friends. We constantly quote it!