Forbes has compiled a list  of the 10 most overpaid actors in Hollywood. The numbers are deduced by the amount of money the stars earned for their past three films in comparison to the overall income for each movie.

The results are as follows:

1. Drew Barrymore
2. Eddie Murphy
3. Will Ferrell
4. Reese Witherspoon
5. Denzel Washington
6. Nicolas Cage
7. Adam Sandler
8. Vince Vaughn
9. Tom Cruise
10. Nicole Kidman

“Couples Retreat,” a painfully unfunny comedy, is a lazy and slapped-together movie. It is constructed around scenes of wasted opportunity and characters with no vitality or humor.

Vince Vaughn, who wrote the script along with co-star Jon Favreau, has to shoulder a lot of the blame. Vaughn, so lively and uninhibited in movies like “The Wedding Crashers” and “Old School”, seems stifled here as a leading man. I can’t help but think that maybe Vaughn would be better served by going back to playing sidekick to actors like Owen Wilson. Vaughn drowns here trying to support the plot and worst of all, does not seem capable of setting others up for laughs.

What is even more frustrating is that instead of at least taking the opportunity to try something new, Vaughn’s Dave fits directly into his increasingly unfunny comfort zone. Dave is a self-involved workingman who meets anyone who suggests that his priorities are out of whack with incredulity. Sounds kind of familiar right?

While there are a couple of moments where Vaughn shows off the rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness delivery that seemed so fresh a few years ago, it is all rather joyless. Vaughn is just giving the audience what he thinks they want.

The only time the film clicks, is when it puts the whole cast together – something it doesn’t do very often. The film’s best scene has the four couples responding to an overly amorous and inappropriate yoga instructor. It is one of the few moments where the entire cast is given an opportunity to play off of each other, which I found ridiculous, considering the fact the movie is being sold as a gathering of really cool actors.

There are far too many scenes of couples therapy that aren’t funny and don’t take advantage of the gorgeous island location- for a movie set in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, too much of the action takes place indoors. I can’t help but think that the movie was written that way so the actors could enjoy as much beach time as possible- hardly the thinking you want screenwriters basing script decisions on.

Favreau and Vaughn have some nice moments together, but it is more due to their natural chemistry than anything that is in the script and there work here is light years away from their classic pairings in “Swingers” and “Made”.

Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell do solid work as Jason and Cynthia, the uptight and uber-organized couple that plans the retreat to help their marriage. Bell in particular adds some genuine emotion to the more serious scenes, which almost made me believe her marriage to Jason – she definitely deserves better material.
First-time director Peter Billingsley (yes the guy who played Ralphie in “A Christmas Story”) does a decent job keeping the film moving but misses a few chances for some big laughs, particularly a scene involving a guitar hero battle between Vaughn and an employee at the resort. Billingsley’s direction robs Vaughn of any chance to cut loose and have fun. Like a lot of the film, the scene is all set up and no punch line.

I would love to think that “Couples Retreat” will serve as a wake-up call for Vince Vaughn and that next year we will get something funny and daring from an actor who used to be both. Then again, I said the same thing last year after seeing the horrendously wretched “Four Christmases”. I shudder when I think about what we might be subjected to next.

Farcical, over the top, and totally implausible, a stellar cast somehow manages to turn a recipe for a forgettable holiday movie into an endearing foray into the joys and fears of a manic yet lovable couple – and the crazy families they try desperately to avoid at all costs. If you’re looking for an enlightening Christmas movie that will teach you a lesson about the strength of the human spirit and provide a good dose of meaning for the kids – watch “Marley & Me.” If you’re looking to buy yourself some (overpriced) laughs delivered by some great actors, then hop on the “Four Christmases” bandwagon.

The thought of Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn may seem like a head-scratcher, but despite the counterintuitive casting, Vaughn and Witherspoon have surprising chemistry – so much so, that they have succeeded in making a mediocre concept, and implausible scenarios, adorably compelling, securing “Four Christmases”‘ spot at the top of the box office charts for the second week in a row. While merry movie-goers may flock to see Vince and Reese’s top notch takes as Brad and Kate — a couple so damaged by their own childhoods that they dread trading more than a sentence with their own parents — the megawatt stars’ flawless performances can’t entirely keep the sagging storyline afloat.

The concept – two happily unmarried lovers force themselves to get over their fears by facing their four divorced parents and destructive siblings on the same day – is a promising one, which lands a lot of spot-on punches. But a series of nonsensical incidents seem blatantly intended to appeal to the most base of amusement standards, focusing solely on illiciting cheap laughs rather than more deeply exploring the characters of Brad and Kate, two genuinely interesting people.

Vaughn’s trademark fast-talking, high-energy brand of acting works; he is still playing Vince Vaughn-as-Vince Vaughn, but in this case minus the testosterone-induced beer chugging and Xbox-playing (Brad is a successful lawyer who leaves the immaturity to his aging yet juvenile brothers). He complement’s Witherspoon’s no-nonsense, goal-oriented woman’s woman as they struggle hand-in-hand to survive a cancelled trip to Fiji resulting in the first family Christmas either of them has spent with their relatives in years.

Vaughn and Witherspoon hit all the right notes as Kate and Brad, an eerily perfect couple. They perfectly complement each other in every way. They do literally everything together, from nights in playing Scrabble, to dance classes “just for fun” (to the disbelief of the married couples in their class). They agree on virtually everything – that holidays are better spent isolated in tropical locales than attempting to have civilized interaction with their in-laws, that marriage is an institution that only forces people to stay together, and that the concept of having kids is totally off the table (they wouldn’t want to propagate the horror and destruction imposed by their own cheating, lying parents). We learn it takes a lot to be such a perfect couple though, including a fanatic resolve on both Brad and Kate’s part to be as polar opposite of their own parents as possible – meaning no talk of marriage, no thought of having children, and absolutely no visiting the family over the holidays.

When Kate and Brad, packed to head out for Fiji on Christmas morning, are featured on the local news as victims of a blanket flight cancellation, they know the ruse is up – their parents know they’re in town and they have no choice but to visit his mom, her dad, his dad, and her mom – all in the same day. With “mistletoe” as their agreed-upon safety word in case the action gets a little too maniacal, Kate and Brad pack up their SUV and brave the holidays with Brad’s Confederate flag-waving dad and brothers, Kate’s man-hunting minx mother and her cougar friends, and Brad’s free-love, hippie mother who’s now dating his ex-best friend.