Macy's direction (yes, really-that William H. In fairness, David Hornsby and Lance Krall's screenplay and William H. That and a buck fifty will get you a cup of coffee. He's the heart and conscience of the film. Matt Jones ("NCIS," "Found"), who plays a hotel guest who gets pulled into Meg, Kate and Ryan's melodrama, is the only actor who seems to have a life apart from the weak situations he's required to enact. Upton's Meg merely comes across as tediously self-absorbed and oblivious-the kind of woman you'd immediately diagnose as a pill if you met her at a party, then avoid for the rest of the night. The dangerous one needs to seem truly dangerous, a creature of pure narcissism and hunger, though with a core of sweetness that explains why Kate puts up with her. Meg and Kate's relationship is a "reasonable one/dangerous one" pairing. She isn't explosively incorrect enough to provide the incandescent spark this character requires. Upton in particular seems a case of settling for the actor you can get instead of casting the actor you need. There are too many moments when you might catch yourself imagining the same material with ace comic performers in the roles ( Kristen Wiig and Anna Faris, for instance). Barr is eye candy as well, though his part is underwritten at first and contrived near the end of the story. The lead actresses are game for anything and knockout-gorgeous, in ways that stretch credulity sometimes-the diving scene puts D'Addario in a bathing suit that could've been on the cover of Sports Illustrated, confirming that she's one of those schoolteachers who eats nothing but fish and rice and spends two hours a day at the gym. I could have played his role, and I'm a terrible actor. The script doesn't even have the courtesy to give him something interesting to do. Penn's is borderline insulting: after anchoring three "Harold and Kumar" films, he's stuck playing a hotel manager who's confined to a couple of scenes.
Molly Shannon, Rob Corddry, and Kal Penn are wasted in small roles. In the meantime, we get treated to an array of slapstick setpieces, including an impromptu diving competition at a hotel pool that features the movie's only genuinely terrific visual punchline, and a scene involving The Filthiest Toilet in Missouri that ends up being merely disgusting. Of course by the end the friends must realize that their bond is more important than any man.
Their nonstop competition for a beefcake prize continues until a third-act plot twist sends the story in a different direction. Virtually the instant Ryan enters Kate and Meg's orbit, his very presence drives them into a spiral of brain-dead, sometimes vicious one-upsmanship. He's got long blond hair and a neatly trimmed beard, killer abs and a superhero chest, and his voice sounds a little bit like George Clooney's.
Louis, Missouri following a hurricane advisory, they become enamored with a dude who sat between them on the flight. The women decide to escape their troubles by taking a holiday vacation to the tropics, but when their plane is diverted to St.