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Couples Retreat is the story of a group of friends that go to an exotic island resort in the hopes of a dream vacation and to help their friends considering a divorce only to find out that the resort is also a heavy duty couples counseling center – and the counseling is not optional. Each of the four couples undergo counseling and discover a whole host of issues they didn’t know they had in this Mars vs. Venus comedy.

While I enjoyed Couples Retreat like I’ve enjoyed any joint venture between Jon Favreau & Vince Vaughn, I can’t quite say the film was cohesive. The movie isn’t as funny as the trailer leads you to believe, but isn’t bad as you might assume it would be; it’s a little clichéd and predictable at times, but altogether entertaining – something that I mainly pin on the sense of humor that radiates off the screen from almost all the actors.

What I really enjoyed about Couples Retreat was as always the partnering between Favreau & Vaughn, and I found the introduction of Jason Bateman to the mix fit well. These are actors that know comedy and know how to find the quirky or comedic beat in a moment. This is the men from Swingers if they managed to grow up and have kids outside of the LA scene, and seeing that is kind of enjoyable in a very unique way.

The one large downside to me was the character Faizon Love played; I’m not talking negatively against Love himself or his performance but how he actually appeared in the movie. For most of the scenes, including some major ones Love’s character is simply not there; either he was cut out as much as possible in editing and reshoots based on studio notes, or Love for whatever reason was not on set nearly as much as everyone else and they shot around him. The problem is that this leaves the audience feeling like his character was included for ethnic variety and that his character and conflict is never actually developed past being the sad divorcee.

Couples Retreat is a good movie and a fun watch. If you’re looking for a laugh not based on gross outs or jokes involving bodily fluids I highly recommend it – this film actually derives it’s comedy form pretty real to life situations which is kind of refreshing.

Director: Peter Billingsley
Writers: Job Favreau, Vince Vaughn & Dana Fox
Dave: Vince Vaughn
Jason: Jason Bateman
Shane: Faizon Love
Joey: Jon Favreau
Ronnie: Malin Akerman
Cynthia: Kristen Bell
Lucy: Kristin Davis

I loved Swingers the first time I saw it and I have to say that the more I see it the more it grows on me, and I know part of that is because right now I am deep in the envy that Favreau & Limon had on that film.

Swingers swept the festival circuit, gained wide recognition and launched the careers of all the people involved with it. If I could be lucky enough to do that with END (my first feature) I would be estatic. I know that’s a very long shot as my film was made even further fromt eh studio system than Swingers but I gotta hope it can be done.

Until then, I get to enjoy Swingers and think about the wild ride their little film took them on.

Now the entire world is aware of Jon Favreau, he is the director that brought Iron Man to life, but in 2001 he made his directorial debut with Made a story about Bobby (whom he also played), a down on his luck wannabe boxer who struggles day to day with trying to provide for his girlfriend Jessica & her daughter, and helping his best friend Ricky. Bobby turns from his stripper-girlfriends body guard to her boss Max’s tough guy & he heads with Ricky to New York to start his career as a mob henchman.

This shows the mark of a directorial debut; while Made is an good movie it doesn’t quite feel like Favreau’s subsequent films. The biggest difference would probably be the tone of his later films. Beginning with Swingers (Favreau’s debut as writer) all of Favreau’s films have been upbeat, if not lighter in tone than Made.

What made Made the most memorable to me is the end of the film. I spent most of the film wondering what the point of the story was and I was not disappointed; Bobby spends his journey through the film trying to provide for his family unit – Jessica & Chloe – only to finally find out that he’s providing for a woman that doesn’t want to be provided for. However, that’s when Made becomes the film that makes it original. Made is about fatherhood; while Jessica fails at being the “wife” she recognizes that Bobby is a better parent to Chloe than she is and allows Bobby to take her daughter as his own. It was a unexpected poignant moment added into the story, that shows Favreau’s true talent as a filmmaker.

What was strange to me in Made is that I spent most of the movie wanting to slap Vince Vaughn. He spends most of the movie seemingly doing everything possible to grate on your nerves, and to do it at top volume. I can’t decide if his performance was meant that way (because he does serve a point) or if it is one of the marks of Favreau’s first try at directing.

I adore Favreau. As a director myself I cannot figure out how he manages to act and direct in his own films, especially a film like Made where he plays the title character. I am excited to be a Jon Favreau fan because I feel like I can watch every film he makes as he makes it and watch his career as it happens. I am truly excited to see where Favreau’s career goes.

Director & Writer: Jon Favreau
Bobby: Jon Favreau
Ricky: Vince Vaughn
Jessica: Famke Janssen
Chloe: Makenzie Vega
Horace: Faizon Love
Max: Peter Falk
Ruiz: Sean Combs

Ricky Slade: You got an ash tray? How about an ash tray? Can I color me that?

So it’s Valentine’s Day and I managed to get through it without having to watch a romantic movie, instead I watched sat on my day bed with my best friend, we wrapped ourselves in throws and we watched Swingers. I adore this movie and she had never seen it and I have to tell you that it was a really fun movie to watch with someone else for the first time.

What was really fun in watching Swingers with someone who has never seen it is watching them react to the vocabulary in the movie: “money”, “babies”, metaphors about bunnies & bears, etc. I am so used to hearing Trent call Mike “money” that I don’t even think about it any more, but I remembered it does take some adjusting to…I still think the adjusting is worth it. The characters are just far too fun.

The thing is that I watched Swingers because I didn’t want to watch a cute romantic movie and in watching Swingers I realized that Mike (Jon Favreau) is absolutely adorable in Swingers. While Trent & Sue are boozing and trying to pick up anything with a skirt Mike is actually managing to deal with his emotional baggage and find a girl that wants to do a little more than deal with his baggage for one night. So in avoiding romanticism I found an adorable guy – and he’s fictional – go figure.

Mike: Look, we're gonna spend half the night driving around the Hills looking for this one party and you're going to say it sucks and we're all gonna leave and then we're gonna go look for this other party. But all the parties and all the bars, they all suck. I spend half the night talking to some girl who's looking around the room to see if there's somebody else who's more important she should be talking to. And it's like I'm supposed to be all happy 'cause she's wearing a backpack, you know? And half of them are just nasty skanks who wouldn't be nothing except they're surrounded by a bunch of drunken horny assholes. And I'm gonna tell you something T. Are you listening?
Trent: Yeah, I'm listening.
Mike: I'm not gonna be one of those assholes. Alright? It just makes me sick. It's like, some nasty skank who isn't half the woman my girlfriend is, is gonna front me? It makes me want to fuckin' puke!

I rented Fred Claus because I wanted to see Vince Vaughn playing with some elves, I really didn’t intend to like it – but I did. I really, really did. Much more than I should like a silly Christmas movie that is all surface and fun. However, it’s in that layer of gloss and frivolity that an entertaining and enjoyable comedy waits, you just have to accept the Christmas roots and mythology that is set up in the film and if you can do that you are good to go.

The precise reason Fred Claus is so enjoyable is because it’s about the mythology behind Christmas, but it is not about Santa Claus, it’s about his older brother Fred and “naughty” children everywhere, because you see by growing up with Nicholas his saintly younger brother Fred became bitter at being overshadowed and thus became naughty himself. Fred is the black sheep, the dirty laundry that the Claus institution cannot afford to air. However, being an actual saint Nicholas has a soft spot for Fred and when Fred calls on Nick for a helping hand Nick offers him a job at the North Pole – this turns out to be the worst timing possible for Nick as Clyde an efficiency expert arrives at the North Pole and threatens to shut Santa down if he can’t meet the impossible goals Clyde sets for him.

I will admit freely that my enjoyment of Fred Claus was partially guaranteed by having Kevin Spacey cast as the villain. My enjoyment of the film was cemented once it was revealed that the final important plot device of the film was a Superman cape and Kevin Spacey declaring that he wore his glasses because Clark Kent wore glasses. David Dobkin and screenwriters thus put two of my favorite things (Spacey & Superman) on screen together and it’s like a disease – part of me is going to love it no matter what (don’t even get me started on my conflicted feeling and constantly changing opinions on Superman Returns).

This film would be nothing though without the believable relationship between Giamatti and Vaughn as Nick and Fred; perhaps I can identify with Fred because I am a middle child who on some level always feels a little upstaged by the siblings on both sides of me, but I felt that Fred and Nick genuinely had a loving, yet conflicting relationship that sums up so perfectly what so many siblings face when they love each other but can’t manage to each exist without somehow injuring the other. Granted this is pumped up in the world of fantasy, but the underpinnings are very real to anyone that has a close sibling.

All in all, Fred Claus is not the holiday classic that Elf is but it is by no means a stupid holiday movie. I quite enjoyed it and I think many other movie goers would as well.

Director: David Dobkin
Writer: Dan Fogleman
Fred Claus: Vince Vaughn
Nick (Santa) Claus: Paul Giamatti
Willie: John Michael Higgins
Annette Claus: Miranda Richardson
Wanda: Rachel Weisz
Mother Claus: Kathy Bates
Charlene: Elizabeth Banks
Clyde Northcut: Kevin Spacey
Slam: Bobb’e J Thompson

Nick 'Santa' Claus: I never realized. You hate me.
Fred Claus: I don't hate you, Nick. I just wish you'd never been born.

The holiday movie season has begun. This means two things – 1: it’s Oscar season so we’ll get Oscar-bait, 2: we are going to be bombarded with holiday themed movies. Four Christmases is not Oscar-bait but one of the standard Christmas fare that comes out between Thanksgiving and New Years; movies that are typically cheapish to make, star cute actors and are designed to capitalize on the few brief weeks of holiday cheer. Most holiday movies are not really that good like Surviving Christmas (which I dare you to remember who stars in that one without using IMDB) or Jingle All the Way there are always exceptions to that rule – movies like Elf, Christmas Vacation and Scrooged are among a few of my most enjoyed comedies and they are Christmas films. Four Christmases is not a great Christmas movie, but it is a lot better than you would expect it to be.

If you’ve seen the trailer for Four Christmases you can guess every plot point in the film – Brad & Kate can’t stand their families and would rather be anywhere else for the holidays. As a result they make an elaborate lie every holiday season that gets them out of going while they sneak off to an exotic destination and relax in peace, the hitch is that their flight gets canceled and they get caught at the airport by a live TV broadcast which all t heir relatives see so they are roped into seeing everyone they were trying to avoid.

Four Christmases suffers because the plot hinges on fog – literally; fog grounds their plane and though it obviously burns off they couple continues to make the rounds with their relatives. If you think too hard about the monologues delivered by both Brad and Kate at the beginning of the film you will realize that actually sticking with their copout and visiting their families once the fog lifts seems really out of character; they are painted as two people that wouldn’t care enough to keep up the charade with as miserable a time as they are having.

However, the reason that the film overcomes this fault is the unexpected chemistry between Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. As Brad and Kate they are an adorable couple and stand so far apart from their families that you do see them as aliens in a foreign land when they are forced to interact. To the tribute of the screenwriter the situations they are put in are believable enough that you can empathize with them – not because Brad’s brother is a UFC fighter who wants to beat him up but because we all have that embarrassing relation that we love but cannot understand no matter how hard we try.

While most of you will just shrug this off to my obsession with Iron Man, my absolute favorite character was Brad’s brother Denver played by Jon Favreau. I have been a fan of Favreau’s since I first saw Swingers and I have to say that seeing him muscled, tattooed and with a mohawk was a memorable experience. Knowing that he and Vaughn have a great friendship (hence the supporting role in Vaughn’s picture) also makes the relationship between Denver and Brad funnier to me.

Four Christmases is not one of the best holiday movies I have ever seen, but it is funny, fresh and genuine. All things considered it’ll probably be one of the better Christmas movies this season.

Director: Seth Gordon
Writers: Matt Allen, Caleb Wilson, John Lucas & Scott Moore
Brad: Vince Vaughn
Kate: Reese Witherspoon
Howard: Robert Duvall
Paula: Sissy Spacek
Creighton: Jon Voight
Denver: Jon Favreau
Marilyn: Mary Steenburgen
Pastor Phil: Dwight Yoakam
Dallas: Tim McGraw
Courtney: Kristin Chenoweth

Swingers is a film very few people would think of making. The title would scare a lot of people off because they assume it’s about overly promiscuous couples; when in fact Swingers is about a group single guys who idolize the Rat Pack and are trying to make it in Hollywood.