Thursday, August 05, 2010

NUTSHELLED: "COUPLES RETREAT"

I remember being all ready to hate Wild Hogs when it came out, and then it was a few notches above half-decent and because of this the experience of paying to see fading sit-com/marquee stars astride crotch-rockets was weirdly satisfying. Couples Retreat is basically Wild Hogs on an island that "looks like a screensaver" minus motorcycles, plus spouses; it's funnier than The Breakup but not as funny as Wild Hogs and nowhere as funny as Dodgeball. Neat cameos; everyone learns life lessons, everybody goes home happier than they were upon arrival. (Didn't see Swingers. Looking forward to The Switch, though I know better.) A future where Vince Vaughn makes comedies that consist of little more than him in belligerent-mode having small-ball semantic arguments is a future I can get behind - as long as they're less formulaic than this one. "Asstastic" is  kind of the ultimate home-security system safe word, isn't it? C+

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