Publications
Partners
What it's about:
A pair of burly New York firemen (Adam Sandler & Kevin James) secretly concoct a fake marriage in order to get around the city's ridiculous pension regulations. To their horror, an overzealous anti-fraud agent (Steve Buscemi) begins investigating their domestic partnership and so they hire a buxom civil rights lawyer (Jessica Biel) and do their best to play the loving couple. But when their fellow firemen find out about their "relationship", their lie becomes increasingly hard to live up to.
What we thought of it:
Love him or hate him, at least Adam Sandler is honest. He discovered his macho-plus-mushy formula way back in 1996 with Happy Gilmore and he's been peddling it ever since. But with I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, a shabby, awkward and altogether cowardly affair, Sandler, may finally have swung and missed.
On the surface it seems like vintage Sandler fare – alpha-male firemen feigning what they so eloquently call "man love". But instead of the in-your-face offensiveness that Sandler fans have grown to love, we have a cringing, politically correct morality tale about how "the gays" are people too.
Never mind that this is really just a cover to allow Sandler and company to say "faggot", "fruit", "queer" and every other homophobic epithet they can dream up, and a convenient platform to air their prurient obsession with anal sex. Oh no, the real moral of the movie is "be nice to the gays, they are people too".
But the real mystery here is why the movie is such a departure from Sandler's well worn formula. We could blame the slapdash direction by Dennis Dugan, but he and Sandler have cranked out a couple of big hits together. You could blame his cuddly co-star Kevin James, but he's probably the most honest thing in the film. And no-one's complaining about the presence of Jessica Biel – or, more accurately, Ms Biel's magnificent rear end, on which the camera lingers lustfully at every opportunity (way to improve that credibility Jessica).
No, the real culprits here are the Oscar-winning writers Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. They brought us Sideways and About Schmidt, but they fail to add any of that razor sharpness to Chuck and Larry. Granted, they were merely revising the lumbering original script by Barry Fanaro, but if anything they seem to have made things worse, not better.
So, if you like your jokes tepid, your racial stereotypes loud and your homophobia guilt-ridden, then Chuck and Larry is your kind of movie. Otherwise I'd advise doing something more fun with your money. Like dental work.
- Alistair Fairweather
A pair of burly New York firemen (Adam Sandler & Kevin James) secretly concoct a fake marriage in order to get around the city's ridiculous pension regulations. To their horror, an overzealous anti-fraud agent (Steve Buscemi) begins investigating their domestic partnership and so they hire a buxom civil rights lawyer (Jessica Biel) and do their best to play the loving couple. But when their fellow firemen find out about their "relationship", their lie becomes increasingly hard to live up to.
What we thought of it:
Love him or hate him, at least Adam Sandler is honest. He discovered his macho-plus-mushy formula way back in 1996 with Happy Gilmore and he's been peddling it ever since. But with I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, a shabby, awkward and altogether cowardly affair, Sandler, may finally have swung and missed.
On the surface it seems like vintage Sandler fare – alpha-male firemen feigning what they so eloquently call "man love". But instead of the in-your-face offensiveness that Sandler fans have grown to love, we have a cringing, politically correct morality tale about how "the gays" are people too.
Never mind that this is really just a cover to allow Sandler and company to say "faggot", "fruit", "queer" and every other homophobic epithet they can dream up, and a convenient platform to air their prurient obsession with anal sex. Oh no, the real moral of the movie is "be nice to the gays, they are people too".
But the real mystery here is why the movie is such a departure from Sandler's well worn formula. We could blame the slapdash direction by Dennis Dugan, but he and Sandler have cranked out a couple of big hits together. You could blame his cuddly co-star Kevin James, but he's probably the most honest thing in the film. And no-one's complaining about the presence of Jessica Biel – or, more accurately, Ms Biel's magnificent rear end, on which the camera lingers lustfully at every opportunity (way to improve that credibility Jessica).
No, the real culprits here are the Oscar-winning writers Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. They brought us Sideways and About Schmidt, but they fail to add any of that razor sharpness to Chuck and Larry. Granted, they were merely revising the lumbering original script by Barry Fanaro, but if anything they seem to have made things worse, not better.
So, if you like your jokes tepid, your racial stereotypes loud and your homophobia guilt-ridden, then Chuck and Larry is your kind of movie. Otherwise I'd advise doing something more fun with your money. Like dental work.
- Alistair Fairweather
