What Happens In Vegas

What happens when you take a commercial tag-line and make a movie out of it? You get What Happens in Vegas. I really wish what happened at the brainstorming sessions for this movie had stayed in those brainstorming sessions. Instead, they unleashed this newest Ashton Kutcher abomination on the world.

Okay, maybe that introduction was a bit harsh. I'll let you judge for yourself. Kutcher plays Jack Fuller, a loser who after being fired by his dad, takes a trip to Vegas. He stars opposite Cameron Diaz who plays Joy McNally, the victim of a recent breakup who also goes to Vegas to drown her sorrows. In a night of drunken passion, the two get married. Okay, no problem, they'll get it annulled. A wrench is thrown into that machinery, however, in the form of a winning slot machine pull, and 3 million dollars. The two go to court to get this worked out. I'm not sure which was more unrealistic- the fact that Dennis Miller played the judge, or that he sentenced them to six months of marriage, during which the 3 million would be frozen. Is this really how our judicial system works?

The two move in together, and begin the war to drive the other one out. This had some amusing moments: Jack urinating in the sink when Joy hogged the bathroom, or a party thrown by Joy to tempt Jack into infidelity, but there were only a few of these. Of course, as the movie progresses, the two begin to fall for each other, and (I'm sorry for giving anything away) they work it out. Big surprise there.

Looking back on the career of Ashton Kutcher to this point, over half of his roles are in movies like this. In fact, the only real risky part he's taken was in Butterfly Effect. And despite that movie being a spectacular flop, I appreciated it. I guess we was just made for these non-comedic and non-romantic, romantic comedies.

Often in a movie like this the supporting cast can bring a bit of redemption. Not so much in this case. Dennis Miller was just absurd in his small role. Jack's friend, played by Rob Corddry was simply annoying. Queen Latifah played her role as a marriage councilor rather straight, seeming more as a prop than a character. Even the zany Zach Galifianakis played a fairly boring character.

What Happens in Vegas was very underwhelming. Despite a few funny scenes, there was nothing original about this movie. I'm trying to come up with something to redeem it, but there is not much.

1.5/5