Couples Retreat Reviews

The overall Rating of the movie Couples Retreat is Generally unfavorable, as metacritic.com has it at a 27 Score out of 100. Not too good, in fact it seems that many movie reviewers hate it. Chicago Sun-Times (50), The New York Times (10), New York Daily News (50) and Variety (40).

Here are the more favorable reviews:

A good idea for a sophisticated comedy lurks within the latest Jon Favreau-Vince Vaughn collaboration, “Couples Retreat,” but the filmmakers lack the courage of their convictions. So the payoff is mixed at best. The problem might lie in that word “sophisticated.” The current trends in film comedies are raunch and juvenilia, the very antithesis of sophistication. -The Hollywood Reporter

The formula itself might have supported hilarity, but the story lacks character specifics. Each couple behaves relentlessly as an illustration of their problem. The movie depends for excitement on a shark attack during a scuba-diving exercise, featuring clueless sharks and an enormous pool of blood apparently leaked from a tiny superficial scratch. Salvadore charms the wives somewhat ambiguously with his oiled pecs and bottles of pineapple-rum drinks. The men don’t bond as much as stand together onscreen and exchange bonding dialogue. -Chicago Sun-Times

Thanks to Vaughn, Favreau, and the stray sharp lines that pop out of everyone else, the film at least offers the lively sound of egos that still know how to swing. -Entertainment Weekly.



The Mixed and less favorable reviews in the media.

There must be a curse on contemporary movies that feature islands or resorts called Eden. Remember “Exit to Eden,” which starred Dan Aykroyd and Rosie O’Donnell as undercover cops at an S&M fantasy getaway? “Couples Retreat” offers a semi-parody of touchy-feely and mystical therapies, but it’s just as sadistic toward the audience. (I think the only Eden I’ve liked in a movie was in “The Bible.”) -Baltimore Sun

In a long movie (nearly two hours), Vaughn still has time to play Guitar Hero (plug) while his wife (Malin Akerman) learns why they called this Eden Hump Island. The reliably hilarious Jason Bateman is asked to play one note — anal neurotic — so we know why his wife (Kristen Bell) is at wit’s end. For me, the saddest aspect of the movie is seeing the great French actor Jean Reno (The Professional) forced to make stupid faces as the “couples whisperer.” Stretches of dud dialogue are interspersed with unsightly sight gags.-Rolling Stone

Instead, some vague intimations of satire are abandoned, as if therapists, yoga instructors, Guitar Hero-playing twits and married people might have their feelings hurt if anything too funny happened. And so not much does. Mr. Vaughn whines after being grazed by a shark. Mr. Bateman and Ms. Bell argue cutely. Mr. Favreau and Ms. Davis ogle and snarl. Mr. Love is the funny fat guy. The lesson is that everyone should have skipped the retreat and stayed home in bed. I wish I had. -The New York Times

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