What Happens in Vegas

What Happens in Vegas really could have stayed on the cutting room floor to be perfectly honest. There's just nothing new here; it's a very standard, stereotypical romantic comedy that will somehow make tons of money I'm sure. The formula is followed to the tee so there are no surprises but I will say that both Cameron Diaz and especially our boy Ashton Kutcher have never looked better! So while I wasn't really entertained by the movie I was never bored by the plentiful shots of the half naked Kutch.

Kutcher plays a hapless lay about who's just been fired by his dad for being too much of a slacker who refuses to follow through on anything or to take his life seriously; and his response is of course to prove his dad absolutely right by picking up and going to Vegas with his loser friend, Hater played by Rob Corddry. Now at the exact same time that this is happening to poor Jack Fuller (Ashton Kutcher) in Brooklyn, across the river in Manhattan, Joy McNally (Cameron Diaz) is being dumped by her uppity fiancé, Mason (Jason Sudeikis) and her best friend's advice on how to deal with this shocking turn of events is, you guessed it, to let lose and just have some fun in Vegas! (I'm going to skate by the fact that her best friend played by the gorgeous Lake Bell is named Tipper… and she's a bartender… yeah… ouch)

When the happy twosomes arrive at their hotel in Vegas, which is surprisingly opulent despite the whole ending a marriage and losing a job thing, they are accidentally thrown into the same room initialing 'the meeting.' A few drinks and a night out on the town later Jack and Joy are married hit the jackpot for 3 Million dollars and are sentenced to stay married for at least 6 months or else forfeit the cash. You all know where it goes from here. At first they hate each other and do everything they can to sabotage the other so they can keep all the money for themselves but over the course of the half year spent together they develop feelings and fall in love… blah, blah, blah.

As I said, nothing new but in a time when so many movies are all about keeping their secrets like the amazing Sex and the City which I absolutely loved but can't tell you why and the secrete Sam Jackson scene in Iron Man that they didn't even show to the press so as not to reveal anything premature, its kind of refreshing to not be worried about ruining anything for anyone here. What you see is exactly what you'll get.

I've heard some people saying lately that Ashton Kutcher has matured and

grown up a little too much and that it's affected his on screen likeability factor and that he just isn't as funny as he used to be. I have to say I disagree. This character is certainly not the best example, but I think seeing a slightly more contemplative Kutch now that he's an old married man with step kids and a for real job as a producer on several different shows is encouraging to see. He can still play the dim witted gorgeous guy well, but he doesn't have to play that part anymore which makes me wonder why he agreed to do this film. It seems more like a page from his past rather than his future.

Cameron Diaz is of course at home in this role of a no nonsense career driven woman wondering when exactly it was that she forgot how to fun and lost herself. But again, the role and the film fail to take her to any new levels.

The supporting cast all turn in adequate performances but again since it's really just re-treading familiar territory you can't help compare them to actors in past films who had way more to work with and therefore enjoy far greater success with this type of role.

If you're a fan of either of these actors and just want to see them doing there thing in their element going from A to B to C than it's not a bad choice, but personally I'd say wait for DVD on this one. Then at least you could pause on the half naked Kutch scenes and really get your money's worth!

Movie Grade: C-

Synopsis:

Set in Sin City, the storyline revolves around two strangers who wake up to discover they got married sometime during the previous night’s drunken festivities, with one of them winning a huge jackpot on the other’s quarter. The couple set out to undermine each other and claim the coin, only to fall in love along the way.