What Happens In Vegas ...

I didn’t get physically ill while watching it, so I guess What Happens In Vegas … exceeded expectations.

Ashton Kutcher stars as Jack Fuller – a man who is not willing to grow up and start living his life. After being fired from his job, Jack and his pal, Hater (Rob Corddry), decide to do the logical thing (if you have the logic of a frat boy). They take a trip to Vegas to get his mind off it.

At the same time, Joy McNally’s (Cameron Diaz) life is falling apart. She’s a type-A, wound up lady trying to overplan and schedule every facet of her life, until her fiancée (Jason Sudeikis) dumps her in the most embarrassing way possible. Like Jack and Hater, Joy’s pal, Tipper (Lake Bell), suggests they also head off to Vegas to forget about her problems (would that be the logic of a sorority sister?).

When Jack and Joy meet, they spend a night of drunken debauchery together that leads to a quickie marriage. The next day, during the hangover haze, each one realizes they don’t want to stay together and start fighting about who hates who more (now, stick with me, because this is where it gets a bit more complicated). Joy and Jack are fighting in front of a casino slot machine, she walks away without her quarter, he plays it out of spite, and wins $3 million.

When Joy wants her half, and the judge in their divorce case rules they must try for 6 months to make the marriage work, or lose the money, will the odd couple end up driving each other insane?

Predictable.

Average.

Typical.

These are all of the ways you can describe What Happens In Vegas…, which lives up to every cliché you can imagine. Gee, do you think they will fight like cats and dogs until they start to appreciate each other, and, maybe, fall for each other? Golly, do you think some big misunderstanding might erupt between them just as it looks like everything is going to work out OK?

What Happens In Vegas … is not a complete lost cause, but writer Dana Fox, director Tom Vaughan, Kutcher and Diaz never try to emerge from the icky goo known as mediocrity. Kutcher puts in the best effort making some of his situations and dialogue giggle-worthy, but he and Diaz both suffer as they attempt to force humor out of a script that doesn’t have much. It leads to overly broad performances as they try to make the typical fights over the toilet seat being up or down, or the battle over cleanliness into something exciting and new, when we know it is not. Didn’t most of this humor go out of style in 1985?

Diaz and Kutcher don’t have much chemistry together, one of my favorite Huey Lewis and The News songs is destroyed in a poorly conceived cover, and guest stars Dennis Miller and Queen Latifah add some star power without purpose as neither one gets to do anything special enough to warrant their appearances.

What Happens In Vegas ... is Rated PG-13 for some sexual and crude content, and language,including a drug reference