Official Trailer (HQ)

Early Thoughts & Opinions

 
Another Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn team up? Yes please! I loved Swingers, I almost liked Made as much, and now they have given us Couples Retreat. I consider Favreau and Vaughn to be almost the Tarantino’s of comedy because they follow the same structure. Just like Tarantino, they use character dialogue to carry a story instead of an overcomplicated plot. If you haven’t seen Swingers yet, check it out before this movie and it’s guaranteed to get you hyped for this film. If you really like it, also consider checking out Made. As for Couples Retreat, the trailer looks great and very funny! I would be extremely surprised and disappointed if this turned out to be another Funny People.
 

My Review

 
What can I say about Couples Retreat? I enjoyed is as a whole, but I was sure that it was lacking when I heard the row of guys behind me say that they thought this was one of the top 5 worst movies that they had seen. Of course I find that to be an extreme hyperbole, but it does support the issues that I had with this film. The best way that I can describe this film is to say that it’s a middle ground between The Break-Up and Swingers because it has that pure guy humor from Swingers while also including the romantic drama that you can’t avoid in a film like The Break-Up. Initially, it fell between a 3 or 4 overall, but once I filled in the critique I knew that it had to be a 4-star.

Overall, it looks great. The cinematography is perfect and the direction is nearly flawless. It really captures “Eden” and immerses you in an island escape! The group of actors was wonderful, and they all brought something unique and fresh to the table. In the end, I think that the biggest problem that I had was the dialogue. When I’m watching a Favreau and Vaughn script unfold, I expect a certain essence and consistency. It definitely had that essence or flavor, but I’m not so sure that the consistency was there.

Maybe I’m wrong in expecting this much from their script because I understand that a film like Swingers is very hard to top, but I honestly think that they could have done a little better. More than half of the good jokes are used in the trailer, and some of the funniest scenes didn’t even make it into the final cut. I did laugh quite a bit, but I definitely found the comedy a bit too dry at some parts, which lowered the tone of the whole film for me to more of a drama that was trying to be funny. With the new ticket prices raised to $7, $8, and $9.50 I have to say that although this film looks great on a large scale, you may appreciate it more as a rental.
 

My Critique
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Overall Rating
Average:
*Critique Ver 3.0