I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
(PG-13)

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Chuck (Adam Sandler) proves that
Larry (Kevin James) likes it rough.

The Owen Wilson-Vince Vaughn juggernauts and the Will Ferrell-Steve Carell dynasty have overshadowed Adam Sandler's comedies over the past couple years. Now, Sandler and his beer-and-brat pack fight back in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, featuring the Happy Gilmore star's regular cast of sidekicks, along with relative newcomer Kevin James (King of Queens).

Sandler and James play best friends Chuck and Larry, two macho Brooklyn firemen who become domestic partners and pretend to be gay so widower Larry can receive insurance benefits he's being wrongfully denied.

Chuck and his lawyer Alex (Jessica
Biel) cross professional bounds.

When the Feds investigate to see if their partnership is a scam (with Steve Buscemi as the unctuous investigator), Chuck and Larry dial up their "gayness" to 11. Yeah, the plot is inane (it is an Adam Sandler comedy), but it's an excuse to see how many gags director Dennis Dugan (Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy) can wring out of throwing Sandler and James into a parade of stereotypically gay scenarios.

Dugan goes to great pains to establish Chuck and Larry's straight cred: Chuck sleeps with five Hooters waitresses at a time, and a knockout pair of bodacious twins, then his perfect 10 E.R. doctor; Larry is a Mets fanatic who tries to heterosexualize his tap dance-loving grade-school-age son; and they're both heroic New York firefighters, for Chrissakes. So it's funny to hear them talk about how much they love balls and cock and how much gay sex they're having, or see their attempts to make Larry's house "more gay" after Chuck moves in. But it gets old fast.

Larry and Chuck play ball.

And the film's repeated didactic attempts to foster better understanding of gay rights (Chuck punches out an anti-gay protester; Larry comes to embrace his son's love of musicals) come off as sappy at best. Still, there are funny moments in set pieces like a sham Canadian gay marriage (with Rob Schneider playing an inexplicably Chinese minister), a lascivious gay costume ball to raise funds for AIDS research and a Pretty Woman-style shopping spree with the guys' bombshell lawyer (Jessica Biel) and her new best girlfriend Chuck. In the end, though, none of them will have you fondly quoting lines from the movie. After Talladega Nights, Chuck and Larry are no "shake and bake."

By Sam Jemielity

photo credit: Tracy Bennett/©2007 Universal Studios. All rights reserved