The breezy rom-com everyone seems to be enjoying on Netflix this week is Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher’s What Happens in Vegas. The 2008 hit may have been critically panned, but it still happens to be a mindless entertainer with a feel-good beat to it.
Directed by Tom Vaughan and written by Dana Fox, the title is a play on the popular Las Vegas catchphrase “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas”.
The story revolves around two strangers, Joy McNally (played by Diaz) and Jack Fuller (played by Kutcher), who wake up to find themselves married after a night of drunken debauchery in Las Vegas. A classic rom-com trope!
Determined to annul their ill-advised union and move on with their lives, Jack and Joy soon discover a massive jackpot won with a quarter Joy used in a slot machine. The money becomes the subject of a heated legal battle, forcing the incompatible couple to spend more time together than they bargained for. Shenanigans follow, and of course, the main duo end up falling and staying in love.
The energetic performances are propped up by way too many sexual innuendos, raunchy humour, and toilet comedy too. Romance is not exactly thriving in most of this film.
It will make do for a night in with friends with a bucket of popcorn and booze on the side. But it may not exactly be one for the whole family to sit and watch together—unless your parents are more your pals.
Incidentally, Diaz lost her father around the film’s release and skipped on press junkets. She shared a handwritten note with press members, mentioning, “This weekend I am screening ‘What Happens in Vegas’ for my family.
“It was a unanimous decision that we all needed to share a good laugh. After all, that’s why we make films like these. So people can leave behind their worries for a couple of hours – have a good laugh,” Diaz wrote in the letter.
Made on a budget of $35million, What Happens in Vegas grossed $219.3million at the box office. What Happens in Vegas received two Razzie Award nominations: Worst Actress for Cameron Diaz and Worst Screen Couple for Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. However, both of these awards were ultimately won by Paris Hilton for her performance in The Hottie and the Nottie.
Rob Corddry shows up as a bitter scheming lawyer again—it’s strange that it happened twice in the late noughties, once here and again in Community. The cast also includes Lake Bell, Dennis Farina, Treat Williams, Jason Sudeikis, Michelle Krusiec, Zach Galifianakis, Queen Latifah, Deirdre O’Connell, Krysten Ritter, Dennis Miller, Andy Daly, and Billy Eichner.
Fair warning though, Krusiec’s character has a casually racist moniker, ‘Chong’. One can say this is the result of What Happens in Vegas being a product of its time, but it warrants a mention in case someone would rather avoid the trigger.
