Release Date – 10/9/09
Jason and Sylvia are having some marriage problems. They have come to the conclusion that they may be heading towards a divorce. They bring this up to their friends and let them know about a tropical island that does therapy. They convince all their friends to come along with the promise that therapy sessions are not mandatory. When they get there, they find out its not as fun as advertised and all couples skill building sessions are REQUIRED! But they also find out they all might have some marriage problems that they aren’t confronting. The movie is somewhat funny but the moments that make you laugh are too few and far between. They tend to get serious a lot with the marriage problems and forget its supposed to be a comedy.
This is a Vince Vaughn headlining feature but no character is really featured more than another. Vaughn is married to Malin Akerman. They have two kids and their life revolves around managing them. Plus they don’t really do anything together. Vaughn is obsessed with his work as a Guitar Hero video game salesman and Akerman tries to get him involved with household stuff but he brushes it off. Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis are the couple who had a kid while they were young and were forced into marriage. They are looking for every opportunity to cheat on one another. Favreau is probably one of the funniest parts of the movie. He’s just a giant douchebag which is always his best type of role. Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell play the couple with marriage problems. They are very organized and plan everything to a tee. A relationship is like work to them which is why they have problems. Finally, Faizon Love and Kali Hawk play the couple that are just dating. Love just got divorced and is now dating a 20 year old chick who is probably the most annoying character of all time. They try to make her overly ghetto and it just makes you want her to shut up. Additional characters are Jean Reno as the head of the therapy island, Carlos Ponce as the yoga instructor (aka Fake Hank Azaria from The Heartbreak Kid), John Michael Higgins and Ken Jeong as therapists. The scenes with the small characters were actually some of the funnier moments.
All in all, the movie just didn’t have enough laughs for me. Sometimes it went about 30 minutes in between really funny scenes. For a movie advertised as a comedy, it didn’t have enough of “the funny”. Even though its nice seeing lead actresses in bikinis, this is the third tropical island comedy I’ve seen in the last couple years (The Heartbreak Kid, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) so its really running its course. Plus I might be getting sick of Vince Vaughn. He can still make me laugh but not as much as he used to. Bateman is also the same character all the time, Michael Bluth from Arrested Development which he has perfected. Both of them need a little bit of a revamping if you ask me. This was written by Favreau and Vaughn so I was expecting a bit more. Actor turned director Peter Billingsley did what he could with the terrific scenery and an all star cast but the comedy writing just wasn’t solid enough. This is a good pick for a date night because its better than other rom-com type crap out there but its not up to snuff with great comedies that have come out over the last few years.
IMDB – 5.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 11%
Movie Wiseguys – 6/10