Rating:

The new comedy “Couples Retreat” coasts on the charm of a likable cast and occasional laughs, both of which only periodically cover up for its being a patchwork collection of derivative gags and relationship drama that seems leftover from old “thirtysomething” episodes.

The film was directed by, of all people, “A Christmas Story” star Peter Billingsley, and was cowritten and costars Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, the duo behind the transcendent “Swingers.”

But the movie has a great deal more in common with “The Break Up,” the 2006 film with Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston that also sought to combine a romantic comedy plot with surprisingly in-depth analysis of relationship dynamics, and probably featured more scenes of laugh-free arguments than actual comedy.

“Couples Retreat” recycles the same idea and much of the cast (minus Aniston, of course), albeit moving the setting and multiplying the drama to include four couples instead of one. The new film is enjoyable enough — and indeed, much better than “The Break Up” — but there’s nothing in it that’s remotely new.

Like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “The Heartbreak Kid” remake and part of the “Sex and the City” movie, “Couples Retreat” is a movie that tries to make itself automatically pleasant by setting the action at a gorgeous island resort, and it even imports female stars of all three movies.

The film concerns four couples in various stages of midlife crisis who travel together to an island retreat that is in fact a boot camp for couples therapy. Vaughn and Malin Akerman are the busy but generally happy couple with two kids; Favreau and Kristin Davis play high school sweethearts who hate each other; and Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell are control freaks who can’t get pregnant. A fourth couple consists of their obese friend Faizon Love and his 20ish girlfriend (a scene-stealing Kali Hawk).

The plot alternates between relationship discussions that we’ve seen in a thousand other movies, and comic set pieces that you’ve already seen in the thousand times you’ve seen the trailer and commercials for this movie. Vaughn fights sharks! A yoga instructor gets into sexual positions with all the women! There’s a long “Guitar Hero” showdown! Kids say outrageously precocious things! Most of these bits are worth a chuckle at most.

None of the actors stray especially far from their usual screen personas, although Akerman, who has ruined many movies, isn’t so bad here. “Couples Retreat” also supplies some funny roles for island characters, including Jean Reno as a guru. But neither Ken Jeong or John Michael Higgins is nearly as hilarious here as they each were on recent appearances on the NBC show “Community.”

Meanwhile, the movie tries to take relationship issues seriously but treats them in such a shallow manner that it clearly doesn’t have its heart in that, either.

Perhaps I’m making “Couples Retreat” sound worse than it is. There’s quite a bit of funny dialogue, the Vaughn/Favreau team is always great together, and the cast is likable from top to bottom. Just don’t expect a classic, or any type of serious analysis of love or marriage.