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'What Happens in Vegas' a regular comedy

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By Linda Cook | Tuesday, May 13, 2008 12:46 PM CDT | () comments

In this image released by 20th Century Fox, Ashton Kutcher plays Jack Fuller, left, and Cameron Diaz plays Joy McNally in a scene from, "What Happens in Vegas." (AP Photo)

It’s a sure bet that you’ll realize “What Happens in Vegas” is a by-the-numbers romantic comedy within the first 15 minutes.

The “meet cute,” the antagonism that leads to attraction, it’s all there.

Cameron Diaz stars as Joy McNally, a Wall Street whiz kid who rarely stops working. Her well-planned life includes marriage with a professional man who arrives right before his surprise party to tell Joy that he doesn’t want to share his life with her any more.

Elsewhere, Ashton Kutcher is Jack Fuller, whose refusal to finish anything has just gotten him booted from his father’s company. Jack never thinks about commitment — his life goal is just one beer away from his last one. But even Jack resents being fired by his dad, so he takes off to Vegas with his best friend Hater (Rob Corddry). Likewise, Joy and her best friend Tipper (Lake Bell) go to Vegas to help Joy forget about her breakup.

The four end up being assigned the same hotel room, and decide to have a drink together after the error has been resolved. One thing leads to another for Joy and Jack, and they wake after their drunken night on the town to discover they now are married.

Conversation is, to say the least, awkward the next morning. But when one of them hits a $3 million jackpot, they each want half of it. They take the matter to court, where a judge (Dennis Miller) sentences them to “six months of hard marriage,” during which they are supposed to try to work things out (they have the help of a marriage counselor played by Queen Latifah).

By now, the two loathe each other. But they promise themselves they will stick it out for six months — after all, that’s a tidy sum. Meanwhile, though, they try to make life as miserable for the other one as possible. For example, Jack removes the door for the bathroom so he can finally use the washroom whenever he wants.

Naturally, you can’t live together without getting to know each other a little bit, and as they become acquainted … well, you can guess what happens, right?

Diaz and Kutcher are fun, and they develop a little chemistry that’s charming at times. But there’s not much that’s memorable about this average romantic comedy — it’s standard fare in a shiny Vegas package.

‘WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS’

Rating: 2 stars

Running time: One hour and 40 minutes.

Rated: PG-13 for sexual situations and foul language.