A waiter walks through the wedding party carrying crystal atop a tray while the lead male character (Josh Duhamel) kicks his legs high into the air in a celebratory dance … oh man, I wonder what’s going to happen next?

The tray gets kicked, sending the refreshments into the power strip, killing all the lights to the party.

The crowded cinema erupts in laughter. Confused, I looked around, eventually sinking into my chair feeling like I missed the joke.

The film follows a young woman (Kristen Bell) obsessed with her job, with a personal life suffering because of it. And because of a supernatural event, she now has several men trying to win her over. Through this, “hilarity” ensues.

“When In Rome” is a cutesy slapstick comedy that — if anything — appeals to the “oh gorsh what else can go wrong?” comedic sensibility. That being said, I suppose I’m not above a few cheap laughs and caught myself giggling here and there … whether it was the movie or the beverage I slurped just prior, I’m still not sure.

But between the mid ’90s romantic comedy plot line and the Napoleon Dynamite character cameos that begged me to string up a “Vote for Pedro” shirt and hang myself, I would say save your money and spend it on something else … like seeing a different movie.

— Erik Tanner

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“When in Rome” employees such left-field rom-com elements like a Roman setting, an ambitious blonde female lead and a romantic, tan, tan man with a Warrant ringtone.

This epic opens with the leading lady Beth (Kristen Bell) backstage at some art opening, and you can tell right away that she’s important because of her Old Navy employee headset. Beth exchanges rapid-fire, pro-feminist repertoire with her big-eyed assistant — “Wow, imagine working a job where they divide men into classes!” This kind of dialogue is necessary as it solidifies that Beth is funny and cool.

Anyway, so Beth has to fly to Italy to watch her little sister marry some dude she met during her hoity-toity adventures as a stewardess and Beth’s all like, “Hey, this love thing isn’t real, and I don’t have time for it anyway!” But then she’s like, “Oh, maybe I should change my mind because there is the football, groomsmen guy here who’s pretty hunky but oh wait, maybe I just saw him kissing an afro’d lady after the reception so I think I’ll get drunk in this fountain instead.”

Beth wades around in this famous, romantic fountain — the Trevi Fountain, that’s supposed to make giddy fantasies real — all angry and feminist and independent again until some polizia chase her away. But here’s the catch! She snatched a crew of studly (and coincidentally, all American) men’s coins so next they (including Napoleon Dynamite turned Criss Angel and Danny DeVito, among others) follow her all the way back to NYC.

Did I laugh during ‘Rome?’ Check. Was my heart warmed? Check. Did I down several strong margaritas immediately before the screening? Check.

Err, perhaps it ain’t the best after all.

— Beca Grimm

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Both Erik and Beca have 1987 birthdays, meaning, they’re both more than allowed to legally consume alcohol. Even though they are really cool and stuff, don’t take their actions as examples to follow. Maybe ever.