Twofer! The Biz: Couples Retreat, Review: I Heart Huckabees

Hey Everyone.

So in the end I watched two movies tonight, The recent comedy, Couples Retreat starring Vince Vaughn (amongst others), and the olderish indie flick, I Heart Huckabees.

I'll jump right in then, and be kind of quick here on The Biz. Couples Retreat sucked. I'm gonna blurt it out and give one and one half stars. It's a comedy that's like lost it's way or something. I watched this based on a "funny" recommendation from a few older buddies of mine, and maybe it is funny to older types, who have had trouble in relationships and what not but I'm not sure. Anyway, I generally hate niche kind of things, like the stupid kids shows these days. Getting kind of tangential... It seemed liked it was holding something back. I think that sometimes movies try to do too much, I felt similar about Knocked Up, when somewhat serious issues are tackled by comedy they are still attempted to be treated as serious, and to me it ruins the fun of the movie. Dark comedies could be done about this, Knocked Up was better than Couples Retreat do to the goofiness of Seth Rogan. I had hoped Vince Vaughn would supply something of that type but I was disappointed. I just think there wasn't enough in the script to give anyone anything to work with. Definitely some funny parts, and maybe a second viewing would soften me up (it really helped for Knocked Up). Overall not worth seeing, in any form, I would say the main reason I finished it was for this. Meh.

Next up was something I enjoyed very much: I Heart Huckabees. Up to the end I was seeing a 3 star in the future, but the ending put me over the edge and I am going to go ahead and opt for a 3.5. Quite good quite good. The acting really is very good. Jason Schwartzmen does a great job. Dustin Hoffman provides a nice secondary character. Jude Law does a decent job in his spot. I never really thought I would say this, but I really liked Mark Wahlberg. He was hilarious as a man disillusioned with everything. He really was just very good. The script isn't super witty like something from Wes Anderson, but a good dark comedic vibe goes down. I can see how this isn't for everyone. But all in all it's a great view. Negatives? I guess I would say like most films of the style it can be a bit plodding at times... but that's about it... The story follows the main character Alfred as he goes through a personal crisis, and it gets kind of ridiculous as it goes through his and others search for meaning and reason. It gets metaphysical and whatnot, but in a very nonchalant way that isn't too big of a bother, and is rather funny. See it if you like that kind of stuff. May still see it if you don't.



Well that was fun. I talked more about Couples than I would have liked, and maybe not enough about Huckabees but oh well. Think I got my point across, would like to hit some other foreign guys this weekend. I've seen a few recently that I could probably write up something quick about but we'll see. Peace out everyone.