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Title: I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
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Parents will want to preview this before letting kids watch it. There is strong crude humor, strong sexual comments, ugly stereotypes, and mild lanuage. Make extra note: The PG-13 rating is a total joke. Recommended for ages 17 and up. |
Have you ever been to a party where you are stuck with a really obnoxious person. This is the sort of person who must always be the center of attention, must always make a lot of noise, and is someone you sort of chuckle at because you're not exactly sure what else there is you can do. Got it? Okay, now imagine that same person doing all the above, then seeing someone else doing the exact same thing, and getting on that guys case because he's being obnoxious in his attempt to be the center of attention. Comes off a little bit hyprocritical doesn't it? I could say the same thing about "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," another ninety minutes of piss and vinegar from Adam Sandler. In this movie Adam Sandler plays Chuck, a womanizing jerk who is so immature he makes a bet with his fellow firefighters that he would pay to see them take a bite out of a fried up rat that he found in the burnt rubble.
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Kevin James is Larry, a guy who mourns his wife so much that he threw away all the mail that had her name on it, only to discover later on down the road that this included forms that would pass his pension down to his kids should anything happen to him. Oops. Well, that's okay, seeing as how this is an Adam Sandler movie all it will take is a completely unrealistic, totally preposterous, and totally unbelievable situation to get out of this mess. In this case, Larry calls Chuck out to pretend to be his "Lawfully Wedded Partner" as repayment for saving Chuck's life. How long the scam is supposed to go on is never really identified or discussed, most likely because if it was, they'd think of a better plan. Maybe they could pay a hooker to pretend to Larry's new wife? Being married to a woman wouldn't get the government all suspicious, it's less trouble for Larry, and the kids still get their pension.
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Sadly, not only would this completely logical solution not present much of a movie, but since everyone is this movie is a moron I don't know whether I'd believe the characters enough to buy into the scam. Maybe this just isn't a situation you can win in? Never mind. Anyway, Chuck agrees to this, but since the government is obviously bigoted towards gay couples it isn't long before a government official starts snooping around to prove that the two men are not gay. To combat this, Chuck and Larry seek legal help from a lawyer played by Jessica Biel. I wish I could remember her name, but her name is fuzzy to me seeing as how her personality, actions, and role in the movie are secondary to her requirement to stick her butt in the cameras face and walk around in a bikini. I think it's Alex, but that's a guess more then anything.
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Oh, but what's really going to get under your skin are the gay people themselves. To be blunt, the people who really are gay in this movie all come off as super annoying people who are unpleasant to be around. They scream all the time, they are obnoxious in how they make their "freedom for all" speeches, and they react in wishy washy ways to situations. I doubt Jessica's gay brother would be allowed to interrupt a court hearing with a "gay love power" speech once, much less three times (none of which amount to anything more then a Raider type yell over a real statement). Then you have the gay communities reaction to Chuck and Larry themselves. Just for the sake of argument (I'm not going to give away the ending, though I think you know how it will end from the previews), what would your reaction be if you looked up at a gay couple as role models for you and found out they weren't even gay?
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Would you be mad? Angry? Disappointed? Cheerful? Would you think the dishonesty was something you could look over? Would it change the way you looked at that person? I'm afraid to give you the answers, just pick the most unlikely of the two and you, too, could write a screenplay for an Adam Sandler film. Good grief, I haven't even gotten to Sandlers performance itself. As usual, despite what the story is, Sandlers jokes of crudeness are still here. From the first fat guy joke (first ten minutes into the film), followed by the first fart joke (eleven minutes into the film), to the first anger tantrum (fifteen minutes into the film), to the first shouting match (twenty two minutes into the film), it's all Sandlers predictable schlock.
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Why this is considered acceptable behavior by the characters in these films is puzzling. Why this is considered funny is truly mind-boggling. The screenplay was written by Alexander Payne and Tom Shadyac, who won Oscars for their screenplay of "Sideways." How they went from "Sideways" to "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry" is likely to be a hot topic in interviews for years to come. "Sideways" may have been about two unlikable men, but it had charm, wit, and wasn't afraid to be realistic. We didn't always agree with the men, and they weren't always likable, but they were good at heart and pleasant to be around. The same can't be said for Chuck and Larry, who may be good at heart, but come off as annoying and unpleasant. On a positive note though, I guess it IS better then "Boat Trip!"
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