BEFORE: At least four actors carry over from "The Break-Up", so scheduling them together is like a no-brainer. Sad to say my list hasn't been decreasing much lately, since I've been adding a movie to it just about every day this week - so with 325 movies left on my list, and 214 days until I take a break, it's starting to look like I'm not going to finish this year either...
THE PLOT: A comedy centered around four couples who travel to a tropical-island resort for a vacation, but wind up in couples therapy instead.
AFTER: I feel the need to point out that the premise is rather shaky. One couple needs marriage counseling, so they convince three other couples to join them at a resort so they can get a group rate. Why not just see a therapist in their own town? Are there no qualified professionals nearby?
So the plot's a bit of a dodge, to get one couple that needs counseling (and three others that don't realize they do...) to a scenic resort - geez, it must be tough to be an actor, all those long days shooting in tropical paradises, with nothing to do during their long stretches of down-time...
Actually, it's not as bad as the couples first think - it might have been more comic if the couples were forced to endure more of the couple-building skills (What happened to fire-walking and trust-falls? Aren't those Hollywood therapy staples?), but after the sessions are over, they do get to swim, relax, eat great food and enjoy the scenery, so it's hard to feel too sorry for them.
The other story problem here is that we all know these self-help gurus are completely off their nut - so why not show that? Therapy's all a bunch of hooey, right? But no one calls out the experts here on their B.S. As you might expect, each couple finds a comedic, roundabout way to work out their relationship problems.
And while the film doesn't try to paint each relationship with the same broad brush, these are four couples that have very specific individual problems - so the opposite effect applies, people at home might not be able to sympathize with all (or any) of their issues.
I appreciate keeping the physical comedy to a minimum - except for things like yoga and massage sessions, the humor is mostly cerebral here, but the toilet humor still found a way to creep in - so I'm calling it a wash.
Starring Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Jon Michael Higgins (all four carrying over from "The Break-Up"), Kristin Davis, Malin Ackerman (last seen in "The Heartbreak Kid"), Kristen Bell (last seen in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"), Jean Reno (last seen in "Ronin"), with cameos from Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett!), and Ken Jeong (last seen in "The Hangover")
RATING: 5 out of 10 jet-skis
No comments:
Post a Comment