A comedy centered around four couples who settle into a tropical-island resort for a vacation. While one of the couples is there to work on the marriage, the others fail to realize that participation in the resort's therapy sessions is not optional.
Two salesmen whose careers have been torpedoed by the digital age find their way into a coveted internship at Google, where they must compete with a group of young, tech-savvy geniuses for a shot at employment.
An affable underachiever finds out he's fathered 533 children through anonymous donations to a fertility clinic 20 years ago. Now he must decide whether or not to come forward when 142 of them file a lawsuit to reveal his identity.
John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey, a pair of committed womanizers who sneak into weddings to take advantage of the romantic tinge in the air, find themselves at odds with one another when John meets and falls for Claire Cleary.
Dave is a married man with three kids and a loving wife, and Mitch is a single man who is at the prime of his sexual life. One fateful night while Mitch and Dave are peeing in a fountain, lightning strikes and they switch bodies.
Mild mannered businessman Sandy Patterson travels from Denver to Florida to confront the deceptively harmless looking woman who has been living it up after stealing Sandy's identity.
Four men who form a neighborhood watch group as a way to get out of their day-to-day family routines find themselves defending the Earth from an alien invasion.
Dave and Ronnie, Jason and Cynthia, and Joey and Lucy are close. The group used to include Shane and Jennifer, but they divorced and she's gone. Jason and Cynthia announce that their marriage is in trouble, and they beg their friends (and Shane's young girlfriend) to join them on a couples' retreat, at the package rate, on a tropical island. The others reluctantly agree, planning to play while Jason and Cynthia work on their marriage with an island psychologist. To everyone's surprise, the package is inflexible: each couple must participate in the couples' exercises. Soon fault lines appear in all four relationships. What's in store for each couple?Written by
<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Irina Krupnik, the model in the photo to which Joey (Jon Favreau) was preparing to pleasure himself, sued NBC Universal for ten million dollars in March 2010 for publishing her likeness in a vulgar context. A judge ruled against her in July 2010. See more »
Goofs
When Grandpa Jim Jim starts his big American car at the airport, the sound is of a small Japanese car. This scene is not on the DVD release. See more »
Quotes
Joey:
Holy shit, it's like a screensaver!
See more »
Crazy Credits
The opening Universal logo is in monochrome See more »
A Lover's Holiday
Written by David Romani, Tanyayette Willoughby
Performed by Change
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing See more »
I'm unsure what is more worrying, that Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau starred in such a mediocre comedy or the fact that they wrote it. Good friends and regular collaborators Vaughn and Favreau have had mixed results in their working partnership: Swingers is a bona-fide cult classic which tore up the indie circuit back in 1996; Made was a disappointment to all those expecting Swingers 2; The Break-Up was a successful guilty pleasure and Four Holidays (Four Christmases in the US) flopped massively at the US box-office. Where does Retreat fit in? Somewhere near Four Holidays – but at least they didn't also write that.
The target audience was obviously never decided upon as the humour seems to cater for everyone. One minute there are mature, real life moments that firmly fit into the "funny because it's true" category, the next there are gags revolving around untimely erections and masturbation that would be right at home in American Pie. Done in the right way and on their own either of these forms of comedy can be brilliant, however mixing them together makes for a muddled experience. There are a few hilarious scenes – the yoga session undoubtedly the most memorable – just nowhere near enough.
Of the cast Vaughn and Akerman come out best, their natural chemistry and adroit comic timing going a long way to keeping the movie afloat. The others don't fare so well. Favreau needs to leave the acting business and focus on writing and directing, it is practically impossible for him to be amusing on screen. Bateman, Bell, Davis and Love all fail to ever get us laughing, whilst the extended cameo from Jean Reno is possibly the worst stuff the experienced Frenchman has ever put on celluloid.
If you are looking for an easy comedy with fabulous locations (and women) then this might do the trick, but I definitely could not recommend spending your had earned cash to see this at the cinema. DVD bargain bins beckon.
2 out of 5 (1 - Rubbish, 2 - Ordinary, 3 - Good, 4 - Excellent, 5 - Classic)
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I'm unsure what is more worrying, that Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau starred in such a mediocre comedy or the fact that they wrote it. Good friends and regular collaborators Vaughn and Favreau have had mixed results in their working partnership: Swingers is a bona-fide cult classic which tore up the indie circuit back in 1996; Made was a disappointment to all those expecting Swingers 2; The Break-Up was a successful guilty pleasure and Four Holidays (Four Christmases in the US) flopped massively at the US box-office. Where does Retreat fit in? Somewhere near Four Holidays – but at least they didn't also write that.
The target audience was obviously never decided upon as the humour seems to cater for everyone. One minute there are mature, real life moments that firmly fit into the "funny because it's true" category, the next there are gags revolving around untimely erections and masturbation that would be right at home in American Pie. Done in the right way and on their own either of these forms of comedy can be brilliant, however mixing them together makes for a muddled experience. There are a few hilarious scenes – the yoga session undoubtedly the most memorable – just nowhere near enough.
Of the cast Vaughn and Akerman come out best, their natural chemistry and adroit comic timing going a long way to keeping the movie afloat. The others don't fare so well. Favreau needs to leave the acting business and focus on writing and directing, it is practically impossible for him to be amusing on screen. Bateman, Bell, Davis and Love all fail to ever get us laughing, whilst the extended cameo from Jean Reno is possibly the worst stuff the experienced Frenchman has ever put on celluloid.
If you are looking for an easy comedy with fabulous locations (and women) then this might do the trick, but I definitely could not recommend spending your had earned cash to see this at the cinema. DVD bargain bins beckon.
2 out of 5 (1 - Rubbish, 2 - Ordinary, 3 - Good, 4 - Excellent, 5 - Classic)