What Happens in Vegas

Rating PG13 Formats DVD Genre romantic comedy Starring Ashton Kutcher, Cameron Diaz Directed by Tom Vaughan Publisher 20th Century Fox

What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas.  Joy McNally (Cameron Diaz) and Jack Fuller (Ashton Kutcher) find this out too late when they go to Vegas, get drunk, and get married.  A problem easily fixable by divorce, right?  Wrong.  When Jack uses one of Joy’s coins in a slot machine and wins the Jackpot, the law must decide who gets to keep the money.  The two can split the money even, but there’s a catch.  There’s a freeze on the money until they can work their marriage out.  With 3 million dollars at stake, each tries to sabotage the other.  If one appears unfaithful, the other gets all the money.  As they “work through” their marriage, they slowly fall in love.

Despite its title, most of What Happens in Vegas does not take place in Las Vegas.  The majority of the movie follows the two as they try to make each other look unfaithful.  The script is entertaining, but the traps Joy and Jack set up for each other aren’t always that funny.  Diaz and Kutcher have good chemistry, but that doesn’t do much for the film.

The special features aren’t much better.  The DVD includes a commentary with director Tom Vaughan and editor Matt Friedman, six deleted and extended scenes, and three trailers.  It includes a fake commercial for a law firm that specializes in divorce.  This extremely cheesy commercial claims that the law firm can help you divorce your cheating gay partner.  In “Sitting Down with Cameron and Ashton,” the two actors talk about Vegas, their characters, and how men and women interact.  “DVD Extra Time with Zach Galifianakis” is an interview with director Tom Vaughan.  Vaughan talks about how he became a director, where he went to college, and how he became the director of What Happens in Vegas.  He also bickers with Galifianakis about what the English are like compared to Americans.  It’s obvious this feature is scripted.  Whoever put together the special features did a terrible job of making them funny.  Not even the gag reel is funny.  It contains several jokes that should be R-rated.  The movie itself contains several sexual jokes and some bad language.

Don’t get the What Happens in Vegas DVD for the special features.  The features contain little information.  They try to add humor to the DVD, but fail miserably.  While the film is predictable, it has its fun moments.  It’s a typical romance movie, but it’s worth watching if you’re in the mood for a cute chick flick.