Couples Retreat (2009)
Couples Retreat (2009) — Not a bad movie, though not necessarily a good one either. But it made me laugh so I guess it goes in the “win” column, even if it’s not very good. It’s one of those situations where you take people who are funny like Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, John Michael Higgins, Faizon Love, and Ken Jeong and give them a script that isn’t necessarily funny and they make it funny because that’s what funny people do. John Michael Higgins doesn’t really even have any funny lines. He’s just funny because he’s John Michael Higgins [“the Mind-taker” for any Cartoon network fans]. Also throw in attractive women like Bell, Malin Akerman, Kristen Davis, and Kali Hawk in bikinis [Hawk is really attractive and I kept going back and forth on whether or not that makes up for her ridiculously annoying voice]. That helps too. The plot is that four middle-aged guys with younger wives/girlfriends (Jon Favreau and Davis are the same age, every other guy is 10-20 years older than his female counterpart) go to a couple retreat run by Jean Reno (total deadweight) and Peter Serafinowicz (Shaun’s naked undead roommate from Shaun of the Dead). That’s it. People face problems and grow and hijinks ensure and shit all works out all right. Original, no? But it’s harmless enough and has a few laughs.
Persistence of Vision 