I now pronounce this comedy . . .By John DeSando, WCBE's It's Movie Time
In I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Adam Sandler is a practicing Lothario, and Kevin James is seriously overweight. Those are the only real jokes other than the millions spent to produce a third-rate comedy filled with clich?s about gays and boy-men.
Firefighters Chuck Levine (Sandler) and Larry Valentine (James) decide to marry in order to secure the retirement funds resulting from his wife's untimely death. The homophobic quips are torrential and silly, e.g., "I boarded the Dude Train" and "big-time fruits" are some of the better pieces of writing. The extended firefighters' shower scene with the slippery-soap trope is too sophomoric to be believed.
But then maybe these low-points are trumped by Rob Schneider's Asian-wedding coordinator, a caricature so insensitive as to make Mickey Rooney's in Breakfast at Tiffany's look like a tribute.
And these are the authors of Sideways and About Schmidt? Say it ain't so. Don't even hope there's anything of Victor/Victoria or In & Out anywhere near this production.
Sandler's dead-pan is always interesting to witness, and James has a roly-poly cuteness even TV acting couldn't destroy. But Jessica Biel as the sex-object attorney is a serious setback for an actress of some promise. Although her amply-exhibited body is pleasant enough, the sexist situations she endures should be reserved only for the likes of Paris Hilton.
But then, the film plunges gay rights back into the dark ages of minstrel shows. I now pronounce this mainstream comedy the worst of 2007.
John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, which can be heard streaming at www.wcbe.org Fridays at 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm and on demand anytime. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com