[Retro Review] I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK & LARRY
Turning up at my local multiplex a few nights ago I happened to overhear an elderly gentleman ask where the “critics screening” of I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry was. After flashing a badge and taking his directions, he headed off. Well, you all know I’m a fan of Adam Sandler’s movies. Hell, there’s an entire subsection of my DVD collection dedicated entirely to his flicks, which we discussed back in Issue # 19 of Off The Shelf. Now he’s back in another “high-concept” comedy that appears to be following the big-screen trend of every other one of his releases; big box-office takings versus little-to-no critical respect! This time out he’s baiting those of the ‘homosexual persuasion’ with a comedy called I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry that teams him with the hugely (and that’s not just his waist-line!) talented Kevin James, the gorgeous Jessica Biel and Dan ‘he-used-to-be-funny’ Akroyd amongst others.So you all knew I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to see it early huh? Walking over to the same young man behind the counter, I smiled confidently and said “Hi, I’m with Filmrot. I’m here for the critic’s screening of I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. Which screen is it in?” The kid didn’t even look me in the eye or even question what the fuck Filmrot was, nor did he even ask for any form of ID. He pointed in the direction of Screen 5 and off I went. To see the new Adam Sandler flick. Early. For Free. Just by being a “chancing little bastard” as my mate referred to it. Brilliant! Now, on to the review:
I said back in my coverage of Off The Shelf: The Adam Sandler Collection that the best Sandler movies always played on some variation of the man himself as some sort of misunderstood protagonist who has a short-fuse when it comes to anger management who meets a gorgeous girl but she doesn’t see him for who he really is until he starts to woo her by being himself and then she falls head over heels in love with him. Then there’s an obnoxious prick who shows up and wants to stand in the way of whatever it is Sandler’s character wants to achieve before racing to the uplifting finale, a few famous comedians showing up along the way, and it’s all set to a cracking soft rock soundtrack of forgotten 70s and 80s musical gems!
How does this film hold up to the now-patented ‘Sandler Template’? Well, Sandler’s Chuck isn’t that angry a guy as we’ve come to expect from the character’s the ex-SNLer usually plays. There is indeed a gorgeous girl involved in proceedings and you can’t get any more gorgeous than Jessica Biel who, as has been indicated in the film’s trailer, spends various periods of the movies in her underwear, wet in her underwear or in a sexy leather outfit that compliments her breasts beautifully. There is that aforementioned “obnoxious prick”, here played by Steve Buscemi – who normally turns up in small roles in most of Sandler’s better films and usually turns out to be the best thing in them. This film is no different! There is an “uplifiting finale” but it’s probably more accurately described as cheesy/exploitative/predictable and slightly embarrassing. Finally, that “cracking soft rock soundtrack of forgotten 70s and 80s musical gems”? Well… no, nearly every camp ‘disco’ “classic” gets an airing, new “gay(?)” artist du jour, Mika, is heard and the rest of it is nothing to write home about at all.
The film itself finds us in the company of Chuck Levine (Adam Sandler) and Larry Valentine (Kevin James) are two firefighters who also happen to be the best of friends. Larry is a widower with two small children and Chuck is single and a habitual heartbreaking womaniser!
Events are somewhat set in motion when Larry calls in a “big” favour from Chuck, having been his “life-saver” earlier in the film. When circumstances prevent him from naming his two kids as his pension beneficiaries Larry asks Chuck to claim to be Larry’s domestic partner on some city forms. They think it will be easy because nobody will ever know. Chuck reluctantly agrees and the two men go to Niagara Falls to get married.
But a government official, Clinton Fitzer (Steve Buscemi), becomes suspicious, and the new couple’s arrangement becomes a citywide issue and goes from confidential to front-page news, causing hatred and confusion with their “macho” colleagues at the Fire House along the way. Forced to improvise as love-struck newlyweds and seek defence representation against Mr Fitzer from the nubile lawyer Alex McDonough (Jessica Biel), Chuck and Larry must now fumble through a charade of domestic bliss under one roof – whilst Larry puts his children above all else and Chuck finds himself falling for the gorgeous Alex.
The film itself isn’t an outright abomination, like the US critics would have you believe. It’s not exactly great stuff and only just about works as a form of passable entertainment, despite there being more jokes that don’t work then ones that do! I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry’s major problem is that it doesn’t know what it wants to be – a politically incorrect assault on the gay community or a mainstream soapbox for same-sex tolerance in the modern age. It’s not original or brave enough to be the former and it’s no where near sophisticated enough to be the latter. Instead, it exists in this sort of bizarrely mediocre middleground.
The “big reveal” involving Ving Rhames’ gruff firefighter is obvious for anyone who has ever seen a film, any film. Rhames is wasted in this film and perhaps he could have just opted out of it and stayed at home with his dogs, meaning his (now dead) “caretaker” wouldn’t be a) dead and b) buried with various dog bites where his love-handles should be! Dan Akroyd is totally wasted and only really serves as that all important “cliche” in the slightly embarrassing finale. If these are the sort of roles he keeps stepping in and out of retirement for then god help us all. Furthermore, the whole subplot involving Chuck and Alex is destroyed by too-coy an ending that doesn’t give the audience any sort of pay off at all. “Friendship bracelets”? Pur-lease!
The film, overall, is actually in denial about how good it actually is and as a result exists on auto-pilot when it should be pushing boundaries. Having the likes of Lance Bass and Richard Chamberlin turn up is all well and good, if you’re going to do something properly with them. Did Sandler learn nothing from Rudy Guiliani and that agonising Anger Management cameo? And still, nobody bar myself seems to question the fact that this film exists without giving a single ounce of credit to the 2004 Australian film, Strange Bedfellows, which was about two ‘very straight’ old timers (Paul ‘Mick Dundee’ Hogan and Michael Caton) who have to learn how to pass as a loving gay couple after falsely claiming same-sex status to take advantage of newly leglislated tax laws.
It’s a passable hundred-odd minutes with a couple of chucklesome moments spread thinly throughout it’s running time and if you and your partner (male or female, it’s of no importance to me ;] ) have got really low expectations and are looking for something to kill time with on a Friday or Saturday night then this will probably do the job easily enough for you. But when Judd Apatow’s putting something like Knocked Up out there for comedy-loving audiences, you’ve got to ask who actually thought something this “safe” and unoriginal (with nothing really of note to say about a “high concept” subject that deserves it!) would be able to compete within the genre?
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