Swing and a miss

As far as seminal films go, Swingers is up there. It is like a peek inside the mind of the 20-something human male. Before Miranda had her epiphany of "He's just not that into you" courtesy of Burger, which liberated her from the angst of over-analysis on Sex and the City (that spawned the book and then the film of the same name - neither of which I have bothered with, to be honest) there was the "Why didn't you call?... It didn't occur to me" epiphany of Swingers.

[Aside: And what I just realised this very moment: It is the SAME ACTOR!!!! Ron Livingston plays both Burger from Sex and the City and he plays Rob, the golf-playing, Goofy-playing friend who listens to Jon Favreau's endless whining about his ex!!! I just had a Ron Livingston epiphany about his film epiphanies!]

Anyway, that Swingers epiphany really helped settle some confusing questions about human males at a time when such questions were being thrown around pretty frequently. Plus Vince Vaughn at his skinny, hilarious best and his quotable quotes, about baby and money and don't even know it, about being a bear and her being a little rabbit. It's the original Suit Up film - How I Met Your Mother has big shoes to fill. And there is also references to my all time favourite, The Wizard of Oz.

"We're not in Kansas any more... I'm a comedian"

So from the dizzy comedy heights of the predatory human males, slaves to their libidos and their emotions that they can't articulate comes:

Couples Retreat.

I think the best laughs I got out of this film was the laugh of recognition when an awesome cameo came onto the screen. Peter Serafinawicz and his creepy smile were pretty exceptional. The child actor playing Vaughn's youngest son has phenomenal charisma. And of course there were some well written one liners, and some amusing situations. But generally I've gotta agree with David & Margaret, this comedy just really wasn't all that funny. And isn't that meant to be the point?

Possibly, the storyline suffered from some over-editing. In the trailer, there are some scenes with a little background exposition about some of the characters that don't appear in the film. And without those details, the story lacks depth, and just becomes a series of penis jokes. And not very well written ones at that.

The promo for the film is pretty much funnier than the film itself. Giles' (friend from days of yore, and current film blogger for SMH (can you feel the jealousy in the strokes of the keys??))
interview with Vince Vaughn and Jason Batemen is a little bit like comedy perfection.