Review of What Happens in Vegas (2008) by Justin W — 08 Feb 2011

It is with a certain amount of relief that this movie is not quite as awful as it looks on the surface.

Contrary to what the warning signs may show - Ashton Kutcher, romantic comedy - two things which should set anyone's alarm bells ringing - there are actually a few laugh out loud moments to this film.

Unfortunately for us, only one of these has anything to do with the star lead couple of Kutcher and Cameron Diaz, two people who have so little chemistry on screen that Sarah Connor and The Terminator would make a more convincing couple.

Lazy jokes, most of which have been told numerous times before, punctuate most of the first half hour of the film as Diaz and Kutcher play the couple who hate each other but forced to try and make their Vegas shot gun marriage work for the sake of getting a load of cash. The movie is at its strongest during the co-habiting misery episode that follows before the film heads off to it's predictable, romantic conclusion.

It's a little unfair to berate this type of film for being predictable. It's a US, mainstream rom-com.......you can usually figure out that the couple who hate each other really do love each other (he coaches little league....knickers off!) and will live happily ever after.

In the hands of better performers, this sort of thing is usually tolerable but the lack of anything realistic between Kutcher and Diaz really doesn't help matters and Kutcher is so bland anyway that it's hard to see him as anything other than a douche.

The couple of moments when the film does make you laugh help save What Happens In Vegas from the disaster zone and with a few more of them, it might well have turned out to be approaching good territory. As it is, there are long periods of mind numbing boredom before the soppy ending rolls around.