What Happens in Vegas (**)

Directed by: Tom Vaughan (Starter for 10)
Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Cameron Diaz, Queen Latifah
Seen: June 30th 2008

** Out of ****

Cameron Diaz plays Joy, a very career driven woman whose fiancé unexpectedly dumps her, and in her depressed state she and her best friend Toni go to Las Vegas. Ashton Kutcher plays Jack, a low-life slacker whose dad fires him from his job, and in his depressed state he and his best friend, Hater, go to Las Vegas. Upon arrival, the two sets of friends accidentally get booked into the same hotel room, and after sorting things out, they spend the night drinking and celebrating Vegas.

And Jack and Joy wake up married. Obviously they do not really want this, so while they’re fighting about getting a divorce on their way out of the hotel, Jack uses a quarter Joy gives him on a slot machine, and wins $3,000,000. Since the two are married, the money belongs to them both, regardless of who played the slot machine or who the quarter belonged to.

Returning to New York to settle the whole divorce issue, the judge feels that these two are part of the problem of high divorce rates in America, and he forces them to live the “married life” for at least six months before they can touch their halves of the money, or he will tie the money up in litigation forever. They also need to attend weekly counselling sessions with a marriage counsellor (Latifah), who can decide that they are not cooperating at any time - keeping them on their toes in the sessions, and also at their scheming best.

As time goes on, the two try to devise more and more scams to try and force the other out of the marriage in order to get the money - some funny, some amusing, mostly childish but mostly entertaining. In between all of this the two do start feeling something for each other, but their greed still muddles things up for quite a while.

Don’t expect anything much more substantial than two people bickering all the way, however funny or unfunny it may be. Despite that, this is a light hearted romantic comedy, and it’s also rather enjoyable, so don’t feel too bad for having seen it. You also don't have to run if a friend rents it.