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What Happens in Vegas (12A)

YOU should know exactly what you're in for, should you choose to fork out your hard-earned cash for What Happens in Vegas.

If you're going to get all riled up because it's not exercising your brain enough, or sick of the sight of gorgeous people carrying on in Las Vegas and elsewhere, then please avoid.

But if you're a fan of either of its leading lights, and in need of the sight of some slight hi-jinks to get you through the working week, by all means don't let me stop you.

It was perhaps inevitable that Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher would eventually be cinematically paired up. Both former models who have successfully made the move to movies - and stayed there for more than a nano-second -, they have instant Gap-ad appeal which has made the advertising campaign for this project very easy on the eye.

Their characters, control freak Joy and commitment-phobe Jack, meet in Vegas. Both are on a mission to enjoy themselves, she having recently been dumped by her fiancé, he having been fired from his dad's construction business. So, in what should be a warning to anyone, they have a Britney Spears-style wild night on the sauce and wake up married.

But the next morning, he uses her coin to win a three-million-dollar jackpot. With their nuptials consummated, a judge breaks the news that they must stay married for six months and try to make their relationship work (only in filmland would this occur) before either of them can get their hands on the cash.

As you would quite rightly have predicted, each tries to force the other into breaking their vows, attempting to gain the upper hand in securing the majority of the money, despite the efforts of their marriage counsellor (Queen Latifah).

Cue plenty of crazy antics as the duo employ underhand means to catch the other out, and obtain crucial evidence of spousal abuse, aided and abetted by their respective best friends, Tipper (Lake Bell) and the interestingly named Hater (Rob Cordry).

As Kutcher proved as Michael in That 70s Show - and even in the risible Cheaper by the Dozen - he can make stupid male characters very appealing, and, to an extent, he does so again here. His enthusiasm and wholehearted abandon to whatever shenanigans the plot makes him become involved in are rather refreshing, and he's matched, scene for scene, by Ms Diaz.

Whatever you can say about this film, you can't say that its leads aren't trying their absolute utmost to make it all palatable.

I feel some way inclined to support it because it's the first big Hollywood break for Scottish director Rob Cordry, who cut his teeth on Cold Feet and was behind the great adaptation of Starter for Ten, starring James McAvoy.

He obviously hasn't been given Pullitzer Prize-winning material to deal with, but mines it for all it's worth. And however much the latter is will be entirely dependent on you.

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