'What Happens in Vegas' should have stayed in Vegas

While watching insipid romantic comedies, I often cling to the comic supporting characters as my life preserver.

Rob Corddry and Lake Bell are hardly the stars of "What Happens in Vegas" - they play the respective best friends of the leads, Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz - but they are far and away the most entertaining element of the movie. They rescued me, though I can't really say they rescued the film.

After sharing a wild night in Vegas, Kutcher's Jack Fuller and Diaz's Joy McNally wake up to discover they've gotten married. A quick annulment hits a snag the next morning, however, when he wins $3 million at a slot machine and she claims half of the money should be hers.

Before releasing any of the funds, a judge (Dennis Miller) orders the pair to give their marriage a shot for six months.

Any romantic comedy that requires this much explaining has a problem to begin with, yet "What Happens in Vegas" also grossly miscalculates what will be amusing about its central couple.

Kutcher and Diaz are both ingratiating, comic talents, which means the opening montage of their drunken night together captures them at their best. Once they start intentionally annoying each other after the judge's decree - for no logical reason, by the way - they also begin to annoy us.

Corddry and Bell provide a welcome buffer. Their characters become antagonists, as well, but in increasingly outrageous ways (the most passion in the movie can be found in their insults).

"What Happens in Vegas" would have been far funnier - though also far less marketable - if the story had been about them.

- Josh Larsen, movie editor