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Couples Retreat: Not Exactly a Relaxing Getaway

BuzzSugar — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:30:11 -0700

Everyone loves a vacation, right? Beautiful scenery, tropical drinks, fun in the sun. Add a few of your closest friends and you could have the trip of a lifetime - or a romantic getaway gone horribly awry.

To be fair, the four pairs in Couples Retreat don't realize what they're agreeing to when they head to Eden East, a swanky resort on a remote island. But once the relationship boot camp begins, the friendships quickly break down, and it's often more depressing than hilarious. To see what I mean, just read more.

The movie's couplings range in age, family size, and personality, with Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman at the epicenter. As Dave and Ronnie, they are perhaps the most "normal" of the bunch. Between Dave's demanding job making video games (hello, Guitar Hero product placement) and raising two young sons, Dave and Ronnie don't even realize their problems until they are forced into couples skill-building. Vaughn is his typical wise-cracking character, but a touch of sweetness makes his on-screen relationship with Akerman the most enjoyable to watch. You can actually believe that they love each other and aren't using the trip as a band-aid for a bullet hole.

Jason and Cynthia (played by Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell), on the other hand, are a lot harder to relate to as two type-A personalities with an undying love for organization and PowerPoint presentations. Jason and Cynthia present the idea of the group vacation to their friends as a last-ditch effort to save their marriage (promising that the therapy sessions are optional, of course). Bell is her typical adorable self, but Bateman is insufferable. His character is painfully meticulous and overbearing, making the audience feel just as suffocated as Cynthia does.

Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy (Kristin Davis) represent the worst of the worst: the couple that's been together so long that they don't even notice each other anymore. The high school sweethearts take the trip not as an opportunity to re-kindle the flame, but to chase skirts (or in this case, bikini bottoms) and muscular yoga instructors. Favreau gets a few laughs with his quest to get to Eden West, the "singles" side of the island, but age-wise, Davis doesn't quite fit in with Bell and Ackerman. It's also hard to laugh at characters that embody one of the biggest fears for young couples, and their ice-cold relationship is almost too realistic to scoff at.

Then there's Shane (Faizon Love), who's newly separated from the wife he still loves, but brings along his 20-year-old girlfriend for the ride instead. As Trudy, Kali Hawk steals a lot of the laughs as she yearns to drink and party all night long while her boyfriend would rather take a nap. One joke that never gets old: Trudy's insistence on calling Shane "Daddy" throughout the entire film.

With such a strong headline cast, it's disappointing that the supporting actors steal the show. I laughed the hardest at Dave and Ronnie's adorable boys (who get very little screen time) and at the motley crew of therapists and other wacky workers at the resort dedicated to making this the trip from hell.

At the end of it all, you'll get a few laughs along with some very beautiful imagery, but you might just want to put your money toward your own vacation instead.

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures

Buzz News Roundup, 9/11

BuzzSugar — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:30:37 -0700

Jeff Bridges is in talks to star in a Coen Brothers remake of True Grit. - Variety
Abigail Breslin will star in Janie Jones, as a girl abandoned by her mother at a rock concert. - The Hollywood Reporter
Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman will reunite for a Hancock sequel. - Variety
Texts From Last Night will be made into a TV show. - GeekSugar
Edward Norton will guest-star on ABC's Modern Family. - Entertainment Weekly
Barry Manilow's music is being made into a romantic comedy. - Variety
Casey Wilson dispelled the rumors that SNL fired her for being fat. - Zap2it
Members of Nirvana are not pleased with Kurt Cobain's appearance in Guitar Hero 5. - Billboard
Augusten Burroughs's novel, SelleVision, is being adapted into a one-hour comedy for NBC. - The Hollywood Reporter

Extract: A Few Drops of Humor

BuzzSugar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:30:46 -0700

Director Mike Judge's Office Space didn't do well at the box office, but it enjoyed a popularity and appreciation long after its release that continues to this day, particularly by cube dwellers who find solace in identifying and ridiculing the archetypal office workers. It can be a dark, uncomfortable movie in parts, but there's something almost uplifting about the end of Office Space.

Judge's latest movie Extract has only a few of the elements that make Office Space so great, though, and those elements are dramatically watered down. With the exception of Clifton Collins' character Step, who suffers a distressing injury on the job and whose bumbling good intentions make him hard to resist, there's not much heart to Extract. There are some funny moments for sure - mostly from the supporting cast - but overall it just feels soulless. For more of my thoughts on this, read more.

The story is set in another workplace, but this time we're in a factory and our main character Joel (Jason Bateman) actually likes what he does - owning and running the extract factory. He likes extract, and he has a sort of even mix of fondness and frustration for his employees on the floor. He dreams of selling the place and leaving behind the annoyances of running a business, but mostly his dissatisfaction stems from his home life where he never has sex with his wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig). He never talks to her about it, though, he just whines to his friend Dean (Ben Affleck) who dispenses alcohol, pills and bad advice in equal amounts.

One such piece of advice is to hire a gigolo to seduce Suzie so Joel will have no guilt about sleeping with his new hot temp, Cindy (Mila Kunis). Sure, Joel is heavily drugged when he agrees to the plan, but even when he comes to his senses he doesn't seem all that perturbed about it. Though he goes through a variety of experiences and emotions throughout the movie, Bateman's expression never wavers from basic tired exasperation. It's hard to ever tell what Joel is really going through here, which makes it hard to care.

Up until recently, I was a huge fan and supporter of Jason Bateman. I love it when a movie has just a dash of his specific type of funny (like Smoking Aces and State of Play), but when the side character played by Ben Affleck is funnier than Bateman's leading man (granted, Affleck's character is sillier all around), there's something wrong. Actually nearly every other character in the movie is more appealing and satisfying to watch than Bateman's Joel.

The supporting characters really are fantastic. Judge has a way of creating spot-on replications of the types of coworkers that we've all worked with. Office Space was full of them, from the passive-agressive boss to the overly chipper phone operator to poor old Milton who has focused his whole life on basically one thing (a stapler). Here in Extract, we've got the chatty Cathys who just gossip, complain and shift blame, and the punk kid who can't seem to retain any work-related information in his brain but manages to play in four different bands outside of work. And Joel's clueless, talkative neighbor Nathan (a pitch-perfect David Koechner) is one of the funniest and most painfully realistic portrayals in the film.

This is where I think Judge shines: in crafting characters that people can recognize, at least to some extent. There is a tremendous amount of comedy to be mined from these characters, and they add great flavor to the larger storyline following the average straight man. Problem is, it's pretty tough to like or sympathize with Joel so all we do is keep looking toward the other characters for some fun and relief. They deliver, but it's disappointing that the main storyline is so empty.

Photos courtesy of Miramax

Movie Preview: Couples Retreat

BuzzSugar — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:02:27 -0700

This movie stars a whole slew of actors who are no strangers to comedy (Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Kristin Davis, Kristen Bell and a bunch more), though the trailer for their upcoming movie Couples Retreat doesn't really elicit the big laughs. It does look pretty cute, though, so maybe it's more of a silly-funny thing than a ha-ha-funny thing.

The story follows four couples - some happy in their relationships and some on the brink of separating - who attend a couples retreat together in a beautiful tropical location. As they go about working on their relationships, funny stuff happens, I guess. I will say that it's very cool to see Jon Favreau back in a more central role (he also wrote the movie). I love it when he directs movies, but I love it just as much when he's being funny on the big screen. The comedy opens Oct. 9. To check out the new trailer, read more.

Very Funny Cast Signs Up For Mottola's Paul

BuzzSugar — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:30:33 -0700

So much about this movie news is exciting. First, we've got a great, funny director in Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland). Secondly, there's a script written by the excellent and hilarious British duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Spaced). And now, there's a great group of comedic actors rounding out the cast: Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, and Jane Lynch (I love that she keeps getting more projects these days!). Here's more on the project, titled Paul:

Pegg and Frost, who wrote the script, will play two science-fiction fanatics on a road trip whose conspiracy dreams come true when they trek to Area 51 and encounter the title character, an escaped alien. Rogen will provide the voice of the alien.

It's not my ultimate comedic dream team, but I see nothing wrong at all with this group of funny people. I can't wait for Paul to invade theaters. Oh man, that's terrible. That's it. I'm done!

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State of Play: Surprisingly Gripping Journalism Thriller

BuzzSugar — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:30:35 -0700

In the movies and on TV, investigations always look so exciting and fun - piecing together the facts, swapping clues, untangling the web strand by strand, etc. In a story centered around journalism, this mystery-solving stuff is what makes it fun to watch, especially if there's also a good dose of realism but not so much that it becomes mired in realistic details and we get bored. State of Play very nicely balances these things: It's a sensational murder mystery-thriller but with a scruffy, grumpy journalist lead character and a supporting cast of equally "normal" people. There's enough fiction and embellishment to be escapism, and enough reality to make it believable.

Russell Crowe plays grizzled journalist Cal McAffrey who is something of a legendary dinosaur at the struggling Washington Globe newspaper. His longtime friend, Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), comes under scrutiny when a woman from his research team dies tragically and the public learns that Collins was having an affair with her. As the police conduct their own investigation, Cal himself tries to get to the bottom of the woman's mysterious death - partially to get a juicy story and partially to help clear his friend's name in the scandalous situation. The young, eager blogger Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) insists on teaming up with Cal on his search as she tries to prove herself as a writer at the Globe. Together they work to uncover the truth, but every new revelation brings with it a twisty new discovery and soon the two journalists find themselves enmeshed in a nasty mixture of political conspiracies and tangled personal relationships. That's all I'll say about the plot, but for more of my thoughts on it all, read more.

Trust and deceit are at the heart of this story, as is the blurred line between formal police investigation (to solve a case) and investigative reporting (to get a scoop). Cal and Stephen's friendship is tested repeatedly as Cal’s desire to get as many details for his story as possible gets in the way of his compassion for a buddy. Past hurts also creep back to haunt them and further confuse Cal's motives for getting to the bottom of things. Yet, thankfully, there's no needless lingering on individual characters' personal lives. What we know of these people is almost completely restricted to how they're involved in the messy web of secrets, and the extraneous stuff is pushed aside in favor of the meat of the story. Even the relationship that forms between Cal and Della is handled with a light, delicate touch. Will this remain a mentor-mentee kind of thing, or is there more there? We don't really need to know because watching the trust and mutual respect blossom between them over the course of the movie is gratifying enough.

Admittedly, I had low expectations for this movie and certain things (like Affleck’s entire performance) never managed to exceed those expectations, but regardless, I think it's a success in that it achieves exactly what films in this genre should achieve. It sweeps us up in an intriguing puzzle and maintains our attention for two full hours, while also posing some interesting questions (what is the role of journalism today - especially in relation to politics? Is journalism dying?). It's not the kind of movie that will make you feel a lot of things, but I went in looking for escape and I got it. It may essentially be a story about journalism, but it still manages to be incredibly engrossing.

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures

Movie Preview: Affleck, Bateman in Extract

BuzzSugar — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:30:50 -0700

Jason Bateman. Ben Affleck. Director Mike Judge (Office Space). If you like any one of these things, you may want to take a look at the new teaser trailer for Extract, another comedy from Mike Judge that follows an average guy in an average job who's dissatisfied with both his work and his home life. Bateman plays the central character, Joel, the owner of a flower-extract factory whose marital problems with his wife (Kristen Wiig) bum him out - but he perks right up when a pretty new temp (Mila Kunis) joins the company. Affleck (sporting a beard and some long, scraggly hair) plays Joel's lawyer friend.

Extract opens Sept. 4. Check out the trailer after the jump and tell me: Does this look funny to you? Or a bit of the same old, same old? To watch, read more.

Bateman and Arnett Throw Down to Promote Sit Down, Shut Up

BuzzSugar — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:30:40 -0700

Jason Bateman and Will Arnett may be sitting down, but they are definitely not shutting up in this new video Fox released to promote the forthcoming Sit Down, Shut Up. The animated series, which premieres in April, reunites Bateman and Arnett with their Arrested Development director Mitch Hurwitz. But if this video's to be believed, they may not be so into the prospect of working together again.

Billed as a classic fight in the Ali vs. Frasier or Frost vs. Nixon sense, the video shows the two Bluth brothers talking trash - hilarious, hilarious trash - about each other. There's commentary on Arnett's hair-hat, Bateman's brainless brain, and even a shocking secret about Arnett's physique. In reality, it's just an excuse to watch these two guys be adorable together - and what, you got a problem with that? To check out the video, just read more.

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Aniston and Bateman Get Together For The Baster

BuzzSugar — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:30:16 -0800

Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman have signed on for the comedy The Baster, in which Bateman's character dupes Aniston's character into having his child. Hilarious! Here's more:

The Baster centers on a neurotic and insecure man (Bateman) who finds out his best friend (Aniston) wants to have a child through artificial insemination. He surreptitiously replaces her donor's semen with his own and is then forced to live with the secret that he is the child's real father.

The directors of Blades of Glory, Will Speck and Josh Gordon, will direct. Curiously, the script is adapted from a short story by Jeffrey Eugenides, who wrote the book Virgin Suicides as well as one of my all-time favorite books: Middlesex. I love Jason Bateman and will see almost anything he's in. This might end up being very funny, so I'll keep my mind open. You?

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Fox Searchlight Reportedly Picks Up Arrested Development Movie!

BuzzSugar — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:40:05 -0800

If all the "sources" are correct, Arrested Development fans have something to celebrate today: The movie is a go!

Yup, I think I just blue myself.

The Hollywood Reporter is saying today that Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard are "reportedly closing deals for the long-gestating project from Imagine and Fox Searchlight."

E! Online's Watch With Kristin is going a step further to confirm that without a doubt, the "Arrested Development movie will happen." However! There is apparently some behind-the-scenes drama already, since "one of the show's original cast members has not signed on to the movie." Kristin continues, "The good news is that aside from this actor (who, sorry, cannot be named), I'm told that all of the other main cast members have committed to be a part of the big-screen project." That utterly sucks about the one "holdout," though maybe he or she will come around? Fingers (and hooks!) crossed!

Now, if you need me I'll be in the hospital bar, wearing my "slut" t-shirt.

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