(PG-13 for profanity, sexual material, brief partial nudity): 115-minutes of time & moola wasted. Same old, same old material from Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau & their team of quick-witted improv magicians who, with the kind of sex-oriented, superficial pleasure-oriented comic romances continue to ride on past successes & net Universal Studios with muchos denares. So why try something more challenging?
This time we have four couples that go to an exotic retreat on an isolated exotic island appropriately called Eden, initially to help out one couple in solving their marital problems, but eventually to get entangled in their own.
That first act premise is potentially interesting, but it gets bogged down with routine machinations - sex better on the other side of the fence resulting in inane improv arguments that go on interminably - until with a God-like stroke they see their faults, rediscover the beauty in their marriages, and come to ad nauseam conclusion. There's even a lengthy air guitar sequence that, like other senseless scenes is so fatuous it's embarrassing.
This time we have four couples that go to an exotic retreat on an isolated exotic island appropriately called Eden, initially to help out one couple in solving their marital problems, but eventually to get entangled in their own.
That first act premise is potentially interesting, but it gets bogged down with routine machinations - sex better on the other side of the fence resulting in inane improv arguments that go on interminably - until with a God-like stroke they see their faults, rediscover the beauty in their marriages, and come to ad nauseam conclusion. There's even a lengthy air guitar sequence that, like other senseless scenes is so fatuous it's embarrassing.
Sad to say, the out-takes during the final credits are even worse than the material selected for final use. Good try, folks, but no cigar.
Silly & inane as the characters are, with all their familiar failings, that final denouement tops all the rest.
A talented cast is wasted - including Kristen Bell, Malin Akerman, Faizon Love, Jason Bateman & Krisin Davis, who add little enjoyment to this hollow plot and mostly improvised dialog. Peter Billingsly did his best to bring some modicum of interest and humor to the film, but without much to work with. (He was more promising as the little kid wishing for a beebee gun in one of the best holiday films ever, the 1983 "The Christmas Story.")
They all must have realized what a sorry lot the movie would be, but since it took them to a lush paradise in the Pacific, they probably thought, duh, why not go and chill out for a few months in the sun and get paid doing it. Their gain, our loss. (Grade: D)