Hiding behind a semi-famous cast, Couples Retreat fails to inspire audiences. Relying on cliché marital problems and crude sexist situations, Vince Vaughan and Kristen Bell star in this semi-romantic drama comedy. Littered with little jokes and sexual nuances, few laughs are produced throughout Couples Retreat. What more could one expect from a movie script written by Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau?

            The director for Couples Retreat was Peter Billingsley, Couples Retreat being his first time directing since 1994 in the show The Sacred Fire that happened to be a short sci-fi drama, ultimately unsuccessful. What makes Billingsley think he could take on a major motion-picture comedy? One might recall that Billingsley happened to play Ralphie in A Christmas Story, which was, to be honest, not half-bad. Maybe sticking to acting for the rest of his career would be more beneficial to him than attempting to direct another movie, especially one with Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau helping with the screenplay.

            Four couples are the main cast of the movie; the first couple (and main) includes Dave (Vaughn) and Ronnie (Malin Akerman), who are the only couple who seem halfway normal, their main problem being that there is no spark in their love life after having kids. Joey (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Bell), the second couple, seem to have marital problems stemming from her inability to bear children and his obsessive-compulsive ways. The third couple, Joey (Favreau) and Lucy (Kristen Davis) has reasonable marital problems, seeing as how she is left unsatisfied and he is constantly ogling other women. Lastly, the least convincing couple of them all, also the only black couple, Shane (Faizon Love) and young, twenty-year-old Trudy (Kali Hawk) are separated by the immense age gap.

            The whole shenanigan begins when Joey and Cynthia reveal (at Dave and Ronnie’s child’s party, no less) that they are considering a divorce, ultimately leading to the four couples going on a vacation at Eden, a couples resort. The couples soon find out that they are trapped at a hell-resort, where their itinerary is painstakingly tiring and have no choice but to follow it, or else be kicked off the island, their airfare not to be refunded. Events such as a scantily dressed yoga instructor and a rock band showdown plague this movie, making the audience chuckle while shaking their heads-in disappointment.