The return of the rock-star, superhero, billionaire unofficially ushers in the beginning of blockbuster movie season. Sure, there have been other effects-laden adventures in recent weeks, but none have received quite the accolades (or box office totals) that Iron Man did two years ago. Now, the follow up, Iron Man 2, has landed in theatres and the question is: can awesome-movie lightning strike twice?

Well if you’re Tony Stark, the answer is yes. Mostly. Okay, somewhat.

Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as the recently self-outed superhero, Iron Man. When brilliant (and slightly bat-shit crazy) Russian physicist, Ivan Vanko swears revenge on Tony Stark for crimes his father committed against Vanko’s family, it sets into motion a series of unfortunate events for the playboy tin can.

Does that plot summary seem a little vague to you? It was meant to be. You see, without going into detail on all of the subplots contained within this movie, it’s difficult to actually say for sure how they interconnect. I mean, I could tell you all about Ivan and his vendetta against Stark, Stark’s professional rival, Justin Hammer, Tony’s relationship with the ridiculously named, Pepper Potts, senate hearings, why Tony keeps taking blood tests, who Samuel L. Jackson is and his overall role in Tony’s life, and many other subplots and characters crammed into this movie’s run time, but the fact is, all these events have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

As a result, what you get are Iron Man 2’s two major weaknesses: bloated script and lack of interconnectivity. The majority of events and scenes in this movie occur in their own separate bubbles. If one event happens or doesn’t happen, it doesn’t matter, because there isn’t a cause and effect relationship between people or circumstances. Samuel L. Jackson has nothing to do with Stark’s antagonists; Tony being in a relationship with Pepper has nothing to do with anything. The reason all of this matters to us is that the story actually feels chopped up and edited back together – it lacks flow and cohesiveness and the movie is worse for it.

Secondly, Iron Man 2 suffers from sequelitis: a condition resulting in too damn much of everything. It’s a common mistake seen in many sequels to successful movies. “They liked what we gave ‘em last time? Well, they’ll definitely love double the crap twice as much!” It’s hard to blame Favreau for wanting to surpass his original, but the old adage of less being more, (while mind-numbingly cliché), is still accurate.

But even with both the major problems in this film, their presence only proves that Iron Man 2 isn’t quite as good as the original. It still is a fun, special effects-heavy, sharply written, modern superhero movie. Robert Downey Jr. shines just as brightly as the charming narcissist Tony Stark, and Sam Rockwell pretty much steals the show as the head of Hammer Industries, and all-around nutjob, Justin Hammer.

All in all, Iron Man 2 isn’t as good a movie as its predecessor, but during a year which has featured movies more awful than not, it’s refreshing to revisit familiar grounds where Tony is king and Scarlett Johansson wears leather.

Do you constantly find yourself snooping through your friends’ pictures on Facebook after they just got back from vacation? Does the thought of people with relationship issues whinging and bitching in therapy sound like a pure blast of awesome? My friend, have I got a movie for you!

Couple’s Retreat is yet another collaboration between Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau. The Swingers duo have been pretty much inseparable since their 1996 debut, and this 2009 release shows no sign of them stopping anytime soon.

Staring down the barrel of a divorce, Jason and Cynthia (Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell) hope to attend a couple’s resort paradise to fix their marriage. The only snag? It apparently costs a crazy amount of money. However, if they can convince their fellow couple friends to go (Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn and others), the group rate will put their adventure-in-monogamy nicely into a more comfortable price range.

So, convince the friends they do, and then it’s off to a random tropical destination. However, the extra couples soon discover that the therapy sessions they thought were optional are incredibly mandatory and the wild partying a bit of a no-no. So, with our would-be vacationers forced to attend couple’s therapy, problems emerge, tension is created, and hilariousness is assured. Hmm. Not so much the last one? Well two out of three ain’t bad.

The film simply is not funny. Sure, there is a random chuckle here and there, but all in all, the 113 minutes of run time are fairly dry and rely on the audience to equate absurd situations to side-splitting humour. A heavy emphasis of the script is placed on Vaughn’s usual brand of rambling shtick, but despite the multitude of words vomiting out of his mouth, Vaughn never actually says anything funny.

All of this is actually quite a shame because Couple’s Retreat is a film that showed a lot of promise from the trailer. The premise seemed likeable enough, and set against a beautiful tropical setting with a group of familiar faces, the assurance of a fairly enjoyable movie was pretty much assumed. But how wrong we were. Oh how wrong we were.

The couples themselves have passable chemistry, with Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman being the most believable. As well, Favreau and Vaughn bring their real-life comradery to the screen and most of the scenes with the two ex-Swingers work because of it. However, these occasional moments of charm were hardly enough to patch together a poorly written script, and even the most diehard Vaughn fan will be left wanting.

Overall, Couple’s Retreat feels like a good premise executed poorly. Perhaps Favreau should have watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall before penning this little masterwork (you know, that other tropical rom-com starring Kristen Bell). I can’t help but feel that if he did, a genuine laugh or two would have resulted and I wouldn’t be left wondering what else I could have done in the nearly two hours I wasted on this film.

I hear snorting Pop-Tarts is quite the trip.