Movie Grade: C-

DVD Features Grade: C+

Overall Grade: C

Let’s start with the most pressing issue – comedies aimed at a middle aged demographic are just awful. Obviously this doesn’t pertain to every single one of them, but it seems to be a running trend, and there is no exception seen in Couple’s Retreat. Now after starting with a conclusion, here’s the opening: Vince Vaughn‘s name being tagged above the titles of all of his movies is something that will never make sense. He has had his share of funny comedies, but those all ranged somewhere between 2003 and 2005. Since when did a good two year run where you dish out as more hilarious comedies than the average bear make you top dog in old people comedy.

Couple’s Retreat features Vaughn, alongside Jason Bateman and a set of actors you’ll be pretty sure you’ve seen before: the dealer from Friday, the angry guy from I Love You Man, and Silk Spectre II from Watchmen. Now that there is a mildly recognizable, but still non-a-list cast together, what better to do than put them on an Island and have them try and work out marital problems with a feeling of reluctance and no apparent sense of comedy? The entire screenplay seems like it wasn’t written by a screenwriter, but someone who watches a lot of comedies, and still doesn’t understand things like whit or developing jokes.

The Bluray is jam packed with features for the fans of the film. We have an alternative ending, deleted and extended scenes, a gag reel, “Therapy’s Greatest Hits,” “Paradise Found,” and “Behind the Yoga.” A movie like Moon that made me yearn for more material could only throw on a behind the scenes, but Couple’s Retreat might as well have another feature on it with all the extras: it’s just not fair. The alternative ending wasn’t terrible to watch, but it managed to be ultimately pointless by only really changing the setting of the finale.

The deleted and extended scenes were… I almost feel like this sentence doesn’t need to be finished. They are like the deleted and extended scenes of most other films: they add little to nothing to the story and were removed most likely for time constraints or because they didn’t fit the motif of the rest of the film; nothing of consequence happens. Therapy’s Greatest Hits is a set of outtakes that revolve around the therapy sessions of each couple. Frankly, the therapy sessions were the funniest part of the film so this feature was less agonizing than some other features, but even at its highest highs, Couple’s Retreat only reaches a merely acceptable level.

Paradise Found is dedicated to discussing the process of choosing a location and eventually filming in Bora Bora. There is a nice note of the difference between the beginning of the film in Chicago to

the setting of Bora Bora, but after that it goes to the obvious conversation of the cast loving the location. Of course they loved the location; they were paid heavy sums of money to spend time in a vacation paradise. There is work involved, but how can someone find this setting unappealing. There is also Behind the Yoga which is exclusively about the Yoga trainer in the film. This is somewhat strange being that the character wasn’t any more important than the other side characters.

Now that it’s all over, I have to confess that it wasn’t the least enjoyable movie I have ever been subjected to. There are a few chuckles and mildly relatable moments, but overall the film seems lazy. Everything seems as basic as it could be: the characters, the plot points, and the style of humor. If you have seen any mainstream comedy since 2003 you are certainly familiar with what you are going to see here, but don’t expect the quality of a movie like Anchorman or The 40-Year Old Virgin.

Movie Grade: C-

DVD Features Grade: C+

Overall Grade: C