What Happens in Vegas comes along as the requisite piece of counter programming for the aggressive first wave of summer blockbusters, which will have popcorn machines in multiplexes kicking into overdrive. This is yet another romantic comedy looking for eye contact with the section of the crowd not interested in adventures abound with special effects, and it is yet another specimen of the genre destined to be forgotten alarmingly fast. What Happens in Vegas pits two likeable young stars (Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher) together, but has them doing too many nasty things to each other for too long, and at a point the audience is praying for them to be put out of their misery rather than see them ride into the sunset together. The rom-com postulates are unshakable and the latter is exactly what happens, as most of you have already seen in the trailer.

Kutcher plays Jack Fuller, a slacker with an acute aversion to any sort of commitment who cannot even hold on to a job in his father’s furniture-building company. Diaz is Joy McNally, an A-list commodity trader on Wall Street and an aggressive go-getter whose self-esteem is seriously jolted when her fiance tells her he no longer wants to be with her. Both head to Vegas for a shock therapy for their bruised egos. They are accidentally given keys to the same hotel suit, they proceed to get drunk and hitched up together. On the morning after not only do they wake up together in bed, but find themselves in possession of a marriage certificate. As they start planning their exit strategies a coin gets thrown into a slot machine and the newly-formed family finds itself the proud owner of a three million dollar jackpot. The spouses appear before a judge (Dennis Miller) as each seeks a legal blessing to go their separate ways with half the money. The judge surprises them with a creative verdict of “six months of hard marriage” before they get the annulment. The first to want out loses their claim to their half of the money, of course. Cue a long and nasty series of screwball set pieces circa 2008, which seem to view marriage as a combat sport. To the surprise of none, dirty tricks give way to acknowledgement that what Jack and Joy have is real and the young family end up with love and money. Perfect.

The problem is that by the time the movie tones down the mean-spirited tendencies, it has already proven itself willing to do anything for a cheap laugh. British director Tom Vaughn (Starter for 10) seems to try too hard, makes the comedy too broad and for a long time has his characters closer to cartoons than human beings. It is often the case in such movies that the supporting characters steal scenes from the nominal stars and this holds true here too. Rob Corddry and Lake Bell, who play Jack and Joy’s respective best friends, are consistently more fun to watch together than Kutcher and Diaz, which is not a good symptom for a romantic comedy, but is a pleasing redeeming feature nonetheless. This is the sort of movie that in a couple of years’ time will have you remember that you have seen Kutcher and Diaz together in a film, but you are not very likely to recall what it was about, what its name was or even whether you liked it.