Jack is a good-time-Joe twentysomething who works (sort of) in his father's furniture business. He's hardly surprised when Dad fires him. Joy is a hyper-organized stockbroker who's so rigid she plans "meetings to plan for meetings." But she hasn't planned on her live-in fiancé leaving her.

Jilted Joy and her best friend, Tipper, head to Las Vegas to drown their sorrows in booze and bad behavior. As fate and the movie's scriptwriters would have it, so do unemployed Jack and his best bud, "Hater."

The four are thrown together by a hotel mix-up, and Jack and Joy take an instant dislike to each other. But that sense of repulsion is soon replaced with a competitive one-upmanship that - when mixed with copious amounts of alcohol - turns into an evening of drunken debauchery. When the two wake in the morning, they're (gasp!) married to each other.

Decidedly hung-over, they agree that a quick annulment is the sane course of action. But then they win a $3 million slot machine jackpot and things get complicated. They both want the whole bonanza, so it's off to court. The judge determines that the newlyweds must live together and seek marital counseling for six months if they want to see any of the cash. With gritted teeth they move in together and both start plotting how to make the other crack and run screaming for the hills. 

:: Review

"I'm really interested in stories about finding love or getting to know someone through dysfunction or adversity," says screenwriter Dana Fox. "I first came up with this story about two people who strangely get to know each other while divorcing. Around that time, I kept hearing the phrase 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' and thought, if it wasn't already taken, it would make a great title for a film. Then, out of nowhere, Britney Spears goes and gets married in Las Vegas. And it's like, yeah—one of the things you can do in Vegas is get married on a whim, sometimes even to a total stranger. Of course, the other thing you can do there is win a ton of money. And then it hit me: What if both of those things happened on the same night?"

Wondering if What Happens in Vegas could actually be as salaciously weak as that stated inspiration - and its ads suggest? In a word, yep. And Fox shouldn't object too much to that abrupt assessment since she went on to say, "I love people who speak their minds, and that's my favorite thing about both of the 'best friend' characters, Tipper and Hater."

So, by all means, I'll continue: At best, Vegas boasts a few straggling jokes about male/female differences and some slapstick, goofy struggles between two attractive stars who end up agreeing that marriage might not be as useless as they'd imagined.

At worst - and 90 percent of the material resides here - it's a torpid eye roller that promotes premarital sex (suggestive scenes abound, complete with lacy underwear and heavy gropping), while reinforcing the lie that a Vegas weekend of reckless gambling, loopy partying and bleary-eyed drunkenness will not only help you forget your many troubles and give you a new lease on your love life but leave you gleefully rolling in the cash when it's all over. 

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