New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

97 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
xx Beer for My Horses
75 Boy A
xx Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips
48 Death Defying Acts
85 Edge of Heaven, The
33 Elite Squad
80 Encounters at the End of the World
20 Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
54 Get Smart
73 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
34 Happening, The
25 Hell Ride
78 Hellboy II: The Golden Army
44 Henry Poole is Here
61 Incredible Hulk, The
65 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
46 Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
57 Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
xx Kiss the Bride
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
73 Kung Fu Panda
52 Milarepa
62 Mister Foe
53 Mister Lonely
74 Mongol
61 On the Rumba River
83 Paranoid Park
32 Perfect Holiday, The
49 Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, The
63 Planet B-Boy
72 Priceless
63 Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
70 Standard Operating Procedure
35 Star Wars: The Clone Wars
57 Stone Angel, The
47 Strangers, The
61 Stuck
55 Sukiyaki Western Django
63 This Christmas
71 To the Limit
72 Transsiberian
71 Tropic Thunder
79 Visitor, The
93 WALL-E
37 War, Inc.
xx Whaledreamers
54 What We Do Is Secret
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
54 You Don't Mess with the Zohan
39 Young People F**king
45 Zombie Strippers

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

What Happens in Vegas...
20th Century Fox


6.2

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 38 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Starter for Ten

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some sexual and crude content, and language, including a drug reference

Starring Cameron Diaz, Ashton Kutcher, Rob Corddry, Treat Williams, and Dennis Farina

For charismatic party guy Jack Fuller and buttoned-up commodities trader Joy McNally, a rowdy weekend coincidentally shared in Las Vegas should have, by all rights, ended up being little more than a random blur. That is, if these two vacationing New Yorkers didn't have a signed marriage license staring them in the face to shockingly remind them of the giant misstep they took while feeling no pain, Vegas style. Stacking the deck, not only did Jack and Joy tie the knot after tying one on, but later scored a mind-blowing 3 million bucks in a slot machine bonanza. Well, Jack won it, with Joy's quarter. At the machine she'd already been playing. Or was it the other way around? And whose loot is it, anyway? Therein lies the weird hand dealt this bickering duo, who take their predicament back to Manhattan only to be sentenced by the intractable Judge Whopper to "six months hard marriage." Despite the hapless protests of Jack's best friend and legal counsel Steve "Hater" Hader, Whopper refuses to grant Jack and Joy an annulment, freezes the prize booty, and forces the irresponsible couple to prove they have done everything humanly possible to make their impromptu marriage work. This includes cohabitation, weekly counseling sessions, and doing something the old-school Whopper believes Jack and Joy's "generation" hates to do: try. Otherwise, the judge guarantees, the 3 million bucks will stay caught up in a legal battle so long and expensive that no one but the lawyers will ever see a penny of it. Jack and Joy take the bait, only to find themselves locked in a hilarious, patience-testing, panty-twisting game of wild one-upmanship--may the best "pretend spouse" win. Can Jack and Joy survive their six months of "wedded bliss" without killing each other, and ultimately cash in for the big payoff? Or will the fiery sparks that ricochet between them actually ignite, turning a fake relationship into something real? In the end, What Happens in Vegas may prove the biggest surprise of all. (20th Century Fox)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Dana Fox
DIRECTED BY:	Tom Vaughan
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 26, 2008 Theatrical: May 9, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	99 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Travis Nichols

A first- or second-date flick, after which there can be some Cheesecake Factory and maybe a peck on the cheek, no harm done. What Happens in Vegas is pleasant enough for all of that (and it sidesteps all that "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" raunch).

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Amiable screwball comedy.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

An exceedingly bright comedy that never makes you feel stupid for enjoying its brisk pacing, smart lines, sound construction and superb comic acting, not only from Ashton Kutcher but from Cameron Diaz and well-chosen No. 2 bananas Rob Corddry and Lake Bell.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Kutcher, who gives his most energized performance to date, and Diaz, darting between the caustic and shrill, look as if they're warming up to groovy hate sex, not love, which may be why the film goes flat the moment it turns friendly.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Their chemistry goes like this: He cleans up real nice; she dirties down with gusto.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Sadly, about the nicest thing I can say about What Happens in Vegas is that I didn't hate it - although I suppose that's something.

Variety Joe Leydon

This two-seated star vehicle for top-billed Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz wrings a respectable number of laughs from a formulaic scenario about attracted-opposites who bicker and back-stab their way toward happily-ever-aftering.

LA Weekly Julia Wallace

The stars, despite having only a fraction of the charm and talent of classic sparring-but-meant-for-each-other duos, know how to mug for the camera and well up on cue, and somehow that turns out to be enough to carry this trifle.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Hokey and forced as it is, What Happens in Vegas eventually settles into a rhythm, maybe because Diaz and Kutcher actually look like they have fun together.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The overwhelming sensation of deja vu is exhausting and disorienting. You really HAVE seen it all before.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Complain all you want about the affable slobs in Judd Apatow comedies; at least they're not tools.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Cameron Diaz is the ideal guy's gal and Ashton Kutcher is, well, a guy. Together, they're a zero.

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's a story that feels familiar at best, hackneyed at worst, which is surprising and disappointing, as director Tom Vaughan also made last year's "Starter for 10," a charming British coming-of-age comedy.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

After the initial charm wears off, the whole thing gets check-your-text-messages dull.

Salon.com Mary Elizabeth Williams

As it is, it's too restrained, too often -- too eager to gallop toward postcard sunsets on the beach when tequila shooters and lap dances are what the moment calls for. You'd think the combination of Diaz, Kutcher and Vegas would be good for at least a little sexy, silly fun. But don't bet on it.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

While Diaz and Kutcher make their clichéd characters as likable as possible, you can bet on this: Any movie named after an already-stale ad campaign isn't likely to gamble on the unexpected.

Empire Ian Nathan

Bland enough to make millions as culture edges closer to oblivion.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The screenplay by Dana Fox (she was one of the rewriters of "27 Dresses") devolves into a series of humiliating pranks that always give the upper narrative hand to the male lead. Talk about depressing. I mean, that's what male screenwriters are for--to unfairly stack the deck against the female leads.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Laughs are few and far between in the innuendo-laden script attributed to Dana Fox, who's also responsible for the reprehensible "The Wedding Date."

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

If you don't see where this is going, you've never seen a movie. Sorry it had to be this one.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

What Happens in Vegas should damn well have stayed in Vegas.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

What Happens in Vegas is not only annoying, it's also incompetent – a bad mix.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Only Diaz shows spark because the actress knows how to simultaneously play nice and be a nasty character, thereby gaining audience sympathy. Everyone else hits one note, and it isn't nice.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Who wants to spend a minute on the Strip with the chance that there might be people as annoying as the characters played by Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher walking around?

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The one actor I wanted more of was Williams, who imbues Jack's dad with a robust, sometimes domineering wiliness that suggests a real person. Of course, these silly, inept filmmakers probably cast him because he plays a good guy and his first name is Treat.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

When it was over I felt vaguely embarrassed. I wasn't just leaving a movie theater. I was taking a walk of shame.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

If What Happens in Vegas... serves any purpose, it's to make me consider spending my gambling money in Reno or on a riverboat instead.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

If you're gonna hire one of the funniest American comedians working today – Zach Galifianakis – and shove him to the side of the frame, then frankly, you can take what happens in Vegas, keep it in Vegas, and keep the rest of the us out of it.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

What Happens in Vegas... should have stayed in development -- forever. This ramshackle -- and occasionally repulsive -- farce doesn't even deliver on the minimal promise of its title; most of it takes place in Manhattan.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Because its director, Tom Vaughan, brings nothing of interest to the movie, including filmmaking, there isn't anything to say other than to note its insulting ugliness and ineptitude.

Time Richard Schickel

Worst-in-breed not only for this year, but very likely in living memory.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 38 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Darine S gave it a6:
it's supposed to be a light movie putting that in mind you'll never go under the influence of expecting too much...I did like it and there was something real about it... and of course ADORED Lake Bell's Part and Rob Corddry's too .. and the judge when talking bout his wife

Laura gave it a7:
The movie is just hilarious it's light hearted and entertains the audience. I definately recommend.

Bon D. gave it a6:
Good for a few laughs... far between each other... and that's about it. It's the kind of film you'd expect Ashton Kutcher to be in, but maybe not Cameron Diaz. I do hope she gets better scripts in the future.

Ion gave it an8:
It's a fun movie, better then expected after reading the reviews. I don't know why they dislike it, I enjoyed it and I'm glad I saw it.

Alyson P. gave it a9:
Truthfully, you can definately see from the beginning where this is going. However, the ways that they get there are creative and funny. As chick flicks go, this one is really quite good! My only disappointment is that I expected some hate sex--but even without it the film was good.

Marc S. gave it a10:
I usually don't like mainstream hollywood movies, but this is definately a good one. Its not a serious or realistic movie and i dont think it was meant to be. This is just a funny entertaining movie that I would recommend to anyone.

Josh R. gave it a10:
This film was both funny and touching at the same time, I thought it was great, and screw what those film critics think, they could find a problem in an angel.

What Happens in Vegas... 20th Century Fox

What Happens in Vegas...
20th Century Fox