Couples Retreat 2009

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Though I enjoy nearly everyone on-screen in Couples Retreat, I found it pretty meager and more than a little depressing. Read more

Scott Von Doviak, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: The whole production just comes off as a paid vacation at Club Med for Vaughn and friends. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: Couples Retreat has an eye, and ear, for the way relationships fall apart terribly slowly and then all at once. What it lacks is a truly concentrated comedy punch, preferring instead to land a series of scattered jabs from the 16 arms of its eight leads. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Couples Retreat is a comedy of exhaustion. But it is the comedy itself, in both concept and execution, that seems tired. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Imagine that you are listening in on the marriage-counseling sessions of the dullest couple you know. Multiply that by four, and you've got a pretty good approximation of the experience of watching Couples Retreat. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: It's hard to know if more convincing relationships would have made a difference in a movie so committed to funny accents and potty jokes, but at least it would have shown some effort. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Couples Retreat plays like the NBA All-Star game: What seems like a dream-team exhibition of pros at the top of their game too often turns into an undisciplined mess. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Yes, there's pointed human comedy to be mined from the very real stresses of married life, but this bonehead idiots-in- paradise farce raises issues only to gloss them over. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: The various therapies -- talk, yoga, massage -- serve only to set up tired insult humor and smarmy sight gags. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: This deeply unfunny film is further proof that movie comedy these days -- in its acting, writing, directing -- is far below the average sitcom. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Greatly silly and unexpectedly wise at times. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: This is one of those films, like last week's Whip It and so many others of late, that looks like it was a lot fun to make. It's just not all that much fun to watch. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: 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. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: The actresses are so wasted, they're even demoted to fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth billing under every one of the dudes. At least the guys aren't having fun either. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, L.A. Weekly: Couples, retreat. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Couples Retreat is essentially Vaughn and Favreau's baby, and it is absolutely, inexcusably terrible. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: A few funny lines and ideas emerge here and there, but Couples Retreat mostly feels repetitive and overlong at nearly two hours. You wouldn't mind getting voted off this island. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Ever go on a vacation where most of the people around seem to be having more fun than you? Then you already know what it'll feel like to visit Couples Retreat. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Like most of Universal's offerings this year, you have to wonder exactly who (besides masochists) they thought would actually want to see Couples Retreat in a theater. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Couples, a sputtering if sporadically amusing misfire, packed a lot of actors off to a pretty location and gave them nothing funny or deep to do. Read more

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer: Trouble in paradise. That's the overly familiar premise of this sun-poisoned comedy. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The acting is a mixed bag. Jon Favreau and Faizon Love, who never hit a false note, are the standouts. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It contains little comedy, except for free-standing one-liners, and no suspense, except for the timing of the obligatory reconciliation. It doesn't even make you think you'd like to visit its island paradise. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The cast got to spend a month shooting on Bora Bora. So that explains why they're in the movie. Why you'd spend good money for a ticket to watch them have all the fun and not have any fun yourself passes understanding. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Couples Retreat is neither funny nor honest. The exact opposite of a retreat, it's merely exhausting. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: A marriage-renewal comedy with a decent cast, a few good ideas and no clear grasp on what to do with them. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Couples Retreat is a pleasant, undemanding, middle-of-the-road comedy, and really, were you expecting anything else? Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The capable cast is stuck in a movie that's rated PG-13, with flabby, middle-age pacing. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: There are also scenes, the disjointed kind that wander off aimlessly in the vague hope of finding a movie, not to mention a laugh. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Beneath the ham acting and the relentless banter is a serious movie about relationships. We're being sold laughs, but a few sober thoughts are delivered. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: What's depressing is that there's hardly a creative spark in this sour, offensive, contrived story, and its sloppiness is more consistent than its comedy. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: It's too easy to say that Peter Billingsley shot his eye out with this inept comic trifle, but...well, he shot his eye out. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Expectations of farce are stymied by long stretches of mid-life navel gazing. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's too bad Couples Retreat is so poorly written and conceived, given the talented cast and chemistry between Vaughn and pal Favreau. We're meant to relate to these hapless folks or laugh at their foibles, but more often we wince. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Those involved got to spend weeks at a Bora Bora luxury resort; all we get is this not lousy but unmemorable tropical-vacation comedy. Read more

Dan Zak, Washington Post: Why couldn't Couples Retreat have been lighthearted and zany throughout, instead of trying to push across a message about picket-fence monogamy? Read more