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Malin Akerman may have been "disappointed" with the more mature Vince Vaughn, but audiences clearly cheered his growth, since Couples Retreat dominated the weekend box office.
Often playing petulant and obnoxious bachelors, Vaughn instead plays a committed family man in Retreat. Vaughn told CNN that this is because the life of a married man is right where he wants to be these days.
Recently, for the first time, I decided that something I actively wanted was to be married and have kids. I always thought I would like to have kids someday, but it became a priority of mine just recently, and I met someone and I'm engaged now ... Just as your priorities change as you get older, so do the subjects that have you interested. Swingers came out of Jon [Favreau] moving to California. We had become friends on Rudy, and I started taking him around to underground swing scenes and swing bands that I like. So he wrote an over-exaggerated comedic movie based on him getting past a relationship
The story with Couples Retreat was the same thing. As I started thinking about going to the next place in my life with kids and marriage, it was just on my mind. I think our films really reflect what is going on in our lives.
And unlike Vaughn's other comedies, Vaughn says Retreat isn't "raunchy."
There's no intentional F-words in the movie. There's no GD or taking the Lord's name in vain. This movie didn't warrant that. I think there's a love that comes off the movie in spite of the fact that we deal with adult stuff. I loved it because it didn't go so raunchy.
It's like a [Bill] Cosby record in a sense in that you're dealing with something in a way that's funny but not too down and dirty.
A Vaughn/Favreau movie being compared to a Cosby record seems a little off to us, but Retreat's $35 million at the box office this weekend proves that he's got at least something right.
Posted 10.12.09 by Ryan -
We had bad vibes about this one when, at the movie's Chicago premiere, co-star Malin Akerman said Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau had "grown up a little" and are "definitely a little more subdued." Unfortunately it seems to have rubbed off on their latest movie, in a not-funny way.
"It contains little comedy, except for free-standing one-liners, and no suspense, except for the timing of the obligatory reconciliation. It doesn't even make you think you'd like to visit its island paradise."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"...a not lousy but unmemorable tropical-vacation comedy."
— Dennis Harvey, Variety
"This intermittently funny tale of four couples undergoing relationship therapy struggles hard for its occasional laughs."
— Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
"An ostensible paean to making a marriage work, Couples Retreat is instead so long, inert, and torturously unfunny that it makes a strong case for the drunk-and-promiscuous single life."
— Nick Schager, Slant Magazine
Posted 10.08.09 by reelz -
At last night's Chicago premiere of Couples Retreat, star Malin Ackerman (Watchmen) said she had a preconceived notion of Vaughn and frequent collaborator Jon Favreau, and they didn't meet it.
Everyone has that idea of the single-and-crazy Vince and Jon in Swingers and Made, but I think they've grown up a little. They're still a little crazy ... but they're definitely a little more subdued.
As big fans of Swingers and Made who were considering seeing Couples Retreat over the weekend, we're not very happy about this news.
See also: The Hottest Comic Book Movie Babes of 2009, and a Malin Ackerman photo gallery.
Posted 10.07.09 by reelz -
Couples Retreat, the latest comedy from Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, follows four couples on a tropical vacation where they are forced to participate in the resort's therapy sessions. The idea was conceived by Vaughn, who brought Favreau on to help him write the script. Vaughn and Malin Akerman (Watchmen) spoke to ComingSoon about the movie, with Akerman revealing that having a script didn't keep Vaughn and Favreau from improvising constantly.
Yes. I think there was so much improv that we could probably do a whole other film on the side, but it was great. That was sort of some of the fun parts where you have your character, your intention, your goal for the scene and then it was really cool working with these guys because of the improv. I always love it. I think it's so much fun and so great. Although, once him and Jon start you're like, "Holy s**t." You can tell that there's some history there because you guys together are like husband and wife. You guys should've been a couple.
Since Favreau and Vaughn's second movie, Made, improvisation has been a staple when the two actors work together. Vaughn said that they have a system worked out.
I always do it the same way with Jon. I'll setup two cameras so that we can cut back and forth so that you don't try to match something that comes to your mind on the one side. I've always written, this is the first time I've taken credit, but I've always written a lot on all the movies I've done and not just dialogue but actual story and other people's lines. I've always done that. The great thing about doing that with Jon is that he knows what the story intentions of the scene needs. So it's not like you're with someone just rambling and saying bizarre things. It's all viable and cuttable choices. I think on the DVD of The Breakup, that scene in the bar where Favreau suggests putting a hit out on the new guy that she's dating, I put on that DVD a few other takes that are all really, really good that are just completely different ways to go to get to the exact same end result.
Unlike their previous efforts, Retreat sees Favreau and Vaughn in a role reversal, with Vaughn playing the straight-laced family guy and Favreau as a cheating husband. Vaughn purposely put Favreau in the role.
A lot of times the protagonist or the lead [in a movie] will [have] the burden of staying grounded so that the audience can see the movie through their eyes but a character like Trent [Vaughn's role in Swingers] is allowed more freedom to be out there because he's the comic relief. So for me it's just fun to watch Favreau in that role as it was in Breakup. I thought that he was really great and hilarious and in this one, too, he's so driven and ultimately so likable because Favs is very funny and also has a real warmth to him.
Posted 10.04.09 by Ryan -
Couples Retreat, the latest comedy from Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, focuses on four couples who head to a tropical resort where couples therapy is mandatory. The trailer shows how Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell convince the other couples (Vaughn and Malin Akerman, Favreau and Kristen Davis, and Faizon Love and Kali Hawk) to join them at the retreat using a PowerPoint presentation.
The group soon learns that Bell's pitch is far from the truth once they learn truth about the Eden resort from Peter Serafinowicz.
The following clip has an extended look at the couples yoga session teased in the movie's trailer.
Posted 09.25.09 by Ryan -
With less than a month before Couples Retreat opens in theaters on October 9, Universal Pictures has finally released a new promotional item for the movie. Yet, rather than unveil a trailer or clip, Universal kept it simple with an international poster that's eerily similar to its domestic predecessor. Unlike the previous poster, which depicted four couples standing in water, the international poster shows only three couples, eliminating Faizon Love and Kali Hawk altogether.
The recently R-rated comedy, written by Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn, follows four couples who head to a tropical resort only to realize that couples therapy is a requirement. Love and Hawk will appear alongside Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Kristen Davis, Vaughn, and Favreau — at least domestically. If the international poster is any guide, Love and Hawk's relationship may not make it.
Posted 09.11.09 by Ryan -
Jon Favreau, fresh off of promoting Iron Man 2 at the San Diego Comic-Con, is now back to work on the upcoming comedy Couples Retreat. Favreau announced on his Twitter feed:
Just got sent script pages. Preparing for Couples Retreat reshoots tomorrow. No rest for the weary.
The comedy about four couples going to an island getaway, where they are forced into marriage counseling activities, was written by Favreau and Vince Vaughn. While reshoots are typically a sign of trouble, the Couples reshoots likely are a good sign that director Peter Billingsley knows what works and what doesn't from the large amount of improv done on the Couples set. Co-star Kristen Bell described the improvisational atmosphere as a positive one:
You know, it's just a fun environment to work in. You have to be really supportive if you're working with improv, because otherwise people don't bring up the right instincts and ideas because they feel like they'll be shot down. So it ends up being a really nice set to work on.
The amount of reshoots is unknown, but Favreau did follow up by Tweeting that he is shooting with Vaughn ("haven't seen him in months") and his "movie wife" Kristen Davis.
Posted 07.30.09 by Ryan -
Couples Retreat, a new comedy written by Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn, has its first trailer online. The movie stars Favreau and Vaughn, along with Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Malin Akerman, Faizon Love, Kristin Davis, and Kali Hawk, who, as the title suggests, are four couples that go to a exotic retreat to work on their marriages.
Peter Billingsley, the little boy from A Christmas Story and a longtime friend of Vaughn and Favreau, directs. Watch the trailer below:
Posted 07.01.09 by Ryan -
Rising stars Kristen Bell and Malin Akerman have joined Sex and the City's Kristin Davis as the female leads in the romantic comedy Couples Retreat. The script is from Jon Favreau, who somehow found the time to pen a screenplay while working 20-hour days on the Iron Man set. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Couples Retreat's story revolves around "four couples who go to a tropical island resort, with one couple working on their marriage and the others sucked into the resort's couples therapy." One can only hope that a series of grisly murders ensues. Now that would be funny.
Playing the male leads in Couples Retreat will be Favreau, Vince Vaughn (shocking!), Jason Bateman, and Faizon Love. THR says that "Bell is playing Bateman's wife, Davis plays Favreau's wife, and Akerman plays Vaughn's." Which begs the only slightly ironic question: Where's the love for Faizon?
Handling the directorial duties is A Christmas Story's Peter Billingsley.
Posted 10.15.08 by reelz