LOVE is a battlefield – and in Peter Billingsley’s vapid comedy, penned by Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Dana Fox, enemy lines are drawn on one of the most beautiful locations on the planet.

Filmed on the remote Pacific Ocean island of Bora Bora, part of French Polynesia, Couples Retreat is a flimsy excuse for best buddies Vaughn and Favreau to enjoy a free holiday with some of their acting mates. Our entertainment is secondary.

Their script is so malnourished of chuckles, let alone belly-laughs, that you could fairly categorise Billingsley’s film as a drama, especially with all of the therapy sessions in which the titular couples work through the kinks in their relationships.

Counselling is no sniggering matter, certainly not here, and, to rub salt into our wounds, the screenwriters have the gall to resolve all of the underlying tensions, hurt and resentment for a “happy ever after” finale.

A protracted sequence involving a skimpily-dressed yoga instructor (Carlos Ponce) thrusting inappropriately against married clients drags on.

Vaughn and Favreau’s barrage of wisecracks is tiresome, and we focus instead on the picture-postcard locales, captured beautifully by cinematographer Eric Alan Edwards.