What Happens In Vegas DVD Review

Joy McNally (Cameron Diaz, In Her Shoes, There’s Something About Mary) is a hard working, career minded woman who still has time to be the absolute best future spouse ever to her fiancé Mason (Jason Sudeikis, Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock). In fact for his birthday, she has organized an enormous surprise party, however, just before the big “Surprise!,” he calls off the wedding and kicks her out of his condo. This, unfortunately, occurs, without his knowing, in front of all of their family and friends.

Meanwhile, across town, Jack Fuller (Ashton Kutcher, The Butterfly Effect, That 70s Show) has been caught shirking his duties on the job by his boss one too many times. This causes Jack’s company owning father/boss (Treat Williams, The Substitute, Things to Do In Denver When You’re Dead), a man who gave up on Jack a long time ago, to fire him.

Now while Joy sulks in one bar with her best friend Tipper (Lake Bell) and Jack drinks away his woes in another bar with his lawyer best friend Hater (Rob Corddry, The Heartbreak Kid, I Know Pronounce You Chuck and Larry), they each decide, for different reasons, to mourn in Sin City.

Upon arrival, however, a blackout in the hotel lobby causes for some confusion and as if by fate, the four strangers wind up in the same hotel suites, much to the surprise and chagrin of the ladies who proceed to beat the two gentlemen senseless. After the hotel debacle is settled, Jack invites to pair out for a night on the town, where he challenges Joy to let her hair down. However things get out of hand and in the morning Joy wakes up to realize that she has inadvertently married Jack whilst in her drunken stupor.

The couple, each decides on their own that they had been impetuous, and each suggests that they should divorce. The proverbial bullet seems to be dodged, until Jack puts a quarter into the slot machine Joy had been playing, and wins three million dollars. This sparks a whole other debate and creates an enormous wrinkle for what could have otherwise been a simple annulment.

Once back in New York, a stodgy judge, played by Dennis Miller (Joe Dirt, Saturday Night Live), fed up with the youth of today’s cavalier approach to marriage, decides to freeze the 3 million dollars and sentences the couple to six months hard marriage, where they must learn to respect and cooperate with each other and to respect the sanctity of marriage.

What Happens in Vegas is surprisingly better than was expected. Watching as passive aggressively take out their frustrations on each other ends up being much funnier than it sounds. The film on a whole, however, seems to be more of a vehicle for the supporting cast whose ranks include Rob Corddry, Dennis Farina (Get Shorty, Stealing Harvard), Treat Williams, Zach Galifianakis (Out Cold, Bubble Boy), and Queen Latifah (Bringing Down the House, Stranger than Fiction).

The DVD release of What Happens inVegas is available in three different versions. The first is the standard widescreen release of the film. The second, for only a few dollars more, is an “Extended Jackpot Edition” which, presumably, features more of the movie or more special features, it also lists a Digital Copy for download purposes. Lastly, the film will be available on Blu-Ray high definition disc.