What happens in Vegas (spoilers, I guess)

A movie like this makes one wonder what other commercial slogans will eventually make their ways into the world of movie plots. How long until "I just saved a bunch of money on car insurance" becomes a movie? How long until "Can you hear me now?" makes its way onto the big screen? Of course Las Vegas has provided movies with a locale for years and it often surrounds either gambling or marriage. This movie falls into the marriage category. Of course, hardly any of this movie takes place in Las Vegas.

Joy McNally(Cameron Diaz) has just been dumped by her fiance just as she is about to throw him a surprise party and Jack Fuller(Ashton Kutcher) has just been fired by his dad; so to wash their troubles away these two New Yorkers head off to Las Vegas. McNally is armed with best friend Tipper(Lake Bell) and Fuller arrives with best friend/lawyer Hater(Rob Corddry). Due to a hotel mix up the two twosomes end up in the same room, setting up an unfunny introduction. After they fix the mix up Fuller convinces the two girls to have a drink with the two guys. One drink turns into an entire night of alcohol, gambling, dancing, falling and eventually sex. Oh and marriage. The morning after brings bickering and eventually Fuller puts a quarter in a slot and wins $3,000,000.00 half of which is NcNally's. Upon returning to New York a cranky judge (Dennis Miller) hates young people and orders them to spend 60 days as a married couple and if they do it, they will split the winnings. The two "lovers" hate each other and both figure if they can get the other one to end the marriage early, they will get the full amount. This brings on about 35 minutes of throwing things at Ashton's balls and Cameron falling in the toilet and all sorts of stupidity. As the 60 days draws to a close, do they really fall in love? DO the not? Oh no, who knows what will happen?

Ashton is pretty and charming and Cameron is pretty and charming and when you put them together, you might think it is a no brainer, right? Well it is not. It is not to say there aren't moments of comedy to be found in this movie because there are. In fact, there are some moments that are flat out hilarious, but those moments are overshadowed by stupidity all around and of course, taking the best joke, Ashton stealing the toilet cover, and putting it in the trailer. Ashton and Cameron have obvious chemistry and they handle the physical comedy pretty well, especially Ashton, but the fact of the matter is that it just isn't very good material. Ashton has even made this movie before when it was called Just Married. The two people never seem genuine in their meanness to make the movie work because they are trying too hard to continue to look pretty. In a movie like this you have to be willing to go all in and not be afraid and neither Ashton, Cameron or the director is willing to do that. Then when you add Rob Corddry, the most annoying actor out right now, to the mix, you just have a recipe for a kind of mess.

There are two kinds of romantic comedies- your traditional fall-in-love-but-and-things-happen kind and the kind where the two people hate each other supposedly. The latter kind, the anti-RomCom can work, but the only way to really make it work is to go for the atypical ending. Movies like How to Lose a guy in 10 days, Just Married and this one don't make any real sense because they tack on a happy ending when the characters and the audience do not deserve it. What makes a movie like The Break Up work so well is that they went for the ending you maybe did not see coming. But here, the button down hard working Diaz and the charming slacker Kutcher, of course seem like a perfect match once things get going. The only two who don't realize it are the two lovers. Shocking right? Look I know the audience wants its happy ending and if the couple had not ended up together people would be furious, but this movie also makes it seem like getting drunk in Vegas and marrying a random person is a good idea because it can lead to a perfectly happy life together with $3,000,000.00 to start that life.