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