Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, and Jason Bateman star in ‘Couples Retreat’, a film that “teaches us” that if your marriage is headed for trouble, go to a beautiful resort and argue alot. Then you’ll magically realize, as if you were in a movie, that you love each other! ‘Couples Retreat’ obviously doesn’t have much of a plot (or point) to it, often times in the movie it feels like entire scenes were constructed and put in the movie just for one joke. Example: As a part of one of the “exercises”, the couples must strip to their underwear and stare at each other. But one guy doesn’t have underwear! Oh, how funny yet subtle!
The set-up for the film is that 4 couples, all of them close friends (except for one 20-year old woman), each with their own assorted problems, all go together to a beautiful resort, to bond. What they don’t realize is that they must attend therapy as couples, and the therapy entails some weird stuff. (i.e., swim with sharks)
It’s annoying just how uncreative the film is. Don’t know how to make an audience laugh? Bring in a guy with a funny accent and a Speedo, that’ll make us all laugh! Running out of ideas? Have a Guitar Hero duel! (product placement at its very worst) Occasionally in the film there are scenes of the couples doing yoga with an instructor, which is supposed to make us laugh. Wow, a man is showing another man how to do yoga, how awkward and socially unacceptable! The film reduces a man in a Speedo to a constant punchline. I’m pretty shocked this got a PG-13, there’s some very R-rated jokes here.
There is a bit to enjoy in “Couples Retreat”. Vince Vaughn & Jon Favreau have good chemistry together, something they’ve demonstrated in “Swingers” and even the terrible “Four Christmases”. The dialogue with Vince Vaughn’s children is hilarious, and a running joke with a toilet is crude and stupid, but hilarious. ‘Couples Retreat’ is directed by Peter Billingsley, young Ralphie from the classic “A Christmas Story”. It kind of sucks to say that this movie lacks personality, given the talent at hand.
Basically, although there’s some funny bits in “Couples Retreat”, it’s mostly stupid and uninspired. D
‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ is perhaps the anti-thesis to ‘Where the Wild Things Are’: it plays it safe, doesn’t expand on any artistic boundary, and just doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Yes, it has the same amount of half-hearted giggles as just about any recent family film, yes it has the same insecure, self-doubting, but likable characters as just about any recent family film. Basically it has no personality, and although there’s some good moments it’s just way too bland to set itself apart from recent films.
Childrens movies come and go every week, each more and more alike, each more and more seemingly cranked out for the sole purpose of money. ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ is perhaps the most unique, beautiful, and easily one of the best children’s films I’ve ever seen. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of it is that it was extrapolated from a 9-sentence picture book. Perhaps its the fact that it mixes almost every possible sort of visual effect (people in suits, CGI, puppets) to create one of the most fully realized fantasy worlds since ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Make no mistake. This is not to be missed.
‘Toy Story 1 & 2: 3-D Double Feature’ brings two of the best childrens movies ever made into theaters together, but as the title states, updates them by adding 3-D. Simply put, this one of the best experiences you’ll have in a movie theater this year. I personally find it somewhat incredible that they could take movies I’ve seen countless, countless times and found a way to make them seem fresh and new. The 3-D effects make the big effects really pop out, and also make you notice little things you’ve never seen before. Used merely as a gimmick most of the time, recently 3-D has become a new tool to immersive you in the film, rather than making you say “Look at that car flying towards us!!”
