What Happens in Vegas: A lot better than I thought it was going to be

When I see romantic comedies featured on my Home section in Netflix I tend to ignore a lot of them. I also don't really feel as though Ashton Kutcher is a very good actor but I do have kind of a soft spot for Cameron Diaz, who I think is a really fantastic actress. I figured "what the hell" and drunkenly put this on one night halfway expecting to either not make it all the way through the movie or to be staring at my phone the entire time.

Neither of these things happened and I was pretty impressed with it in the end.

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The online consensus about this film is not very good and generally speaking critics did not like it. Users seem to have a similar opinion but every now and then I take great joy in thinking differently than the masses so I am going to go ahead and say that I disagree with most people on this one. Apparently the public didn't hate it enough to not go see it because the movie made nearly $200 million globally before marketing is factored in.

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The story is a silly one but has probably happened to a few people here and there: Two people head to Las Vegas to party their troubles away and after a long night of partying two of them go to one of those Vegas chapels and get married. Upon realizing their mistake the following day they agree to get an annulment but then they win the super jackpot on a slot machine while arguing with one another.

Although this is not how real life works, the judge at the trial over their divorce / annulment decides that they will have to remain married for 6 months after which time the money will be evenly distributed between the two of them. They are required to live in the same place at this time and Jack's (Kutcher) apartment is a bit of a dump and a bachelor pad for sure.

They go through phases of hating one another and desperately trying to sabotage the other's life but then at times there are some sparks of genuine romance and connection that indicates that maybe they are right for one another. They seem to complement the other quite well and when the "settle down" it turns out that they are actually pretty good together.

Of course the overall story is pretty easy to predict and nothing particularly amazing happens in this film because it is pretty easy to see what is around the corner and how it all is going to end, it's just a question of how they get to it.

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For me, this movie was very easy to watch and I got quite a few laughs out of it although it was mostly because of the supporting cast and not the two leads. Zach Galifianakis and Rob Corddry provide most of the main laughs that I recall.

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Zach isn't even in very much of the movie but his creepy and undeservedly confident character is unnerving as well as funny.

The film is extremely cheesy and predictable but it was, for some reason, exactly what I was looking for a few nights ago. This is NOT a new film as it was released over 12 years ago but I somehow managed to not even know it existed until a few days ago.

Should I watch it?

If you like romantic comedies that don't have very deep stories just for a break every now and then, I think this could be a lot of fun for most people. There isn't anything ground-breaking that happens at all in the movie but it does have some nice moments and I stayed entertained the entire way through. Seeing as how I very easily give up on movies that bore me, I think the fact that I made it through in one sitting without looking at my phone even once is indication enough that yes, I disagree with the masses and think this is actually one of the better comedies I have seen in perhaps this entire year.