Couples Retreat | What to Watch

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Troubled childless couple Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell talk three other couples into coming with them for a week at a paradise island resort devoted to healing relationships

Troubled childless couple Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell talk three other couples into coming with them for a week at a paradise island resort devoted to healing relationships.

Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman have lost their romance, Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis have roving eyes and Faizon Love has divorced his wife and is dating young Kali Hawk.

At the Eden resort, they find a bunch of stereotypes: French martial-arts mystic Jean Reno, English mincing manager Peter Serafinowicz and sleazy sexpot Salvadore (Latin pop singer Carlos Ponce).

Vaughn and Favreau enjoy the best of what's going in the smart dialogue department, some of it very funny and nicely timed - but that's perhaps not surprising as they wrote it.

It's noticeable that the women have very little worthwhile to do, but Serafinowicz and Ponce are more amusing than they ought to be, given the silly stuff they have to do.

The comedy's lowbrow and formulaic, but overall the movie's entertaining with a satisfying supply of laughs and one-liners.