“What Happens In Vegas…”

Review

Rating – 8/10

STARRING

Ashton Kutcher, Cameron Diaz, Rob Corddry, Lake Bell

THE PLOT

Two strangers (Diaz and Kutcher) meet up in Vegas, and after a wild night of heavy partying, they wake up to find they are married. Planning on annulling their marriage, they win a $3 million jackpot, but they are sentenced to “six months of hard marriage” before they can split the jackpot.

THE GOOD

Rob Corddry by himself can really overdo it at times, making his comedic performance one that is not necessarily bearable for the entire film. The same goes for the eternally sarcastic Lake Bell, who has a “witty” comment following every statement of her counterparts. But somehow, when the two are put together, there’s magic. They played off each other so well, despite their lack of physical chemistry, to comprise a great team that kept the laughs rolling.

The chemistry between the two leading heartthrobs, Kutcher and Diaz, was also surprisingly strong. They are both extremely charismatic, and it proved to be very entertaining to watch the two as they try to outwit each other and break up the marriage. Yet, the chemistry comes across as more of a brother-sister relationship than a husband-wife relationship.

THE BAD

Is anyone else noticing that in every movie starring Cameron Diaz, she just keeps looking stranger and stranger? As the camera took different angles of her face, so many of them made her look like a tripped-out cartoon character, which is not that flattering for her, especially when the audience is supposed to believe that Kutcher’s character thinks she is so attractive. Thank god he has Demi to go home to.

Diaz’s character has a hoard of gorgeous friends who come prancing into the apartment like a runway show that took a wrong turn. But when Jack’s (Kutcher) friends come by, they are a bunch of 30-something losers with receding hairlines, thick-framed glasses and beer bellies. Where are all of Jack’s model-like friends? Though Kutcher may appear to be eye-candy enough – as he spends more than half of the movie shirtless – I can’t believe that the only real friends a guy like that would have are schlubs like Rob Corddry.

The film ended on the cheesiest note imaginable. “You bet on me, but all I really needed to do was bet on myself,” says Kutcher at one point, as well as Diaz proclaiming the pair “hit the jackpot.” Thank goodness filmmakers followed it up with a video of the two during their drunken Vegas wedding ceremony.

THE LOW-DOWN

Despite an overly-sappy conclusion to the film with Vegas stereotypes, it was a good time full of cunning one-liners and laugh-out-loud moments. They say that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, but this movie teaches viewers that if your mistakes happen to travel back home with you, try to make the best of it. It may pay off more than you imagined.