Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Support the IDS in College Media Madness! Donate here March 24 - April 8.
Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry: A-

I now pronounce: Sandler's back!

With their T–shirts, Adam Sander and Kevin James put Angelina Jolie and Jessica Biel on notice, respectively.

I don't know what's harder to believe -- Adam Sandler being a ladies man or Kevin James "pretending" to be gay. But if you can get past those issues and a few other minor flaws, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" is a hilarious Sandler-type comedy.\nEver since Sandler founded Happy Madison productions, the quality of his work slowly has devolved into less funny comedies that only appealed to the stoned and stupid (see "Grandma's Boy"). This movie goes back to the quality of pre-"Happy Madison" days and even pays homage to his past films. Sandler at one point reads "The Puppy Who Lost His Way," a book read to Billy Madison, as a bedtime story to Larry's children.\nThe movie opens with sweaty firemen playing a friendly game of basketball. One player, Larry Valentine (James), has a pension plan that neglects to cover his children. He convinces Chuck Levine (Sandler) to join him in a domestic partnership and beat the legal system. The city starts questioning the relationship and, to prevent fraud, Chuck and Larry have to eat, sleep and live as a gay couple to stay out of jail.\nThis movie goes back to the foolproof Sandler plan of taking one stereotype and making every joke possible about it. It covers every single gay joke you can imagine, including a long shower scene with the straight guys dropping the soap.\nBut what set this movie apart from the last few Sandler films were the cameos. Apart from the usual Sandler crew, e.g., Rob Schneider and Steve Buscemi, other familiar faces appear, including Dave Matthews, Dan Patrick, Rob Corddry and Lance Bass. Matthews plays a gay shop worker, Patrick plays a homophobic policeman, Corddry an anti-gay protestor and Bass ... well, Bass plays himself.\nAnother small subplot that gained a lot of laughs was Larry's son who, instead of playing sports like his father wanted, tap danced and sang his way through the whole movie. His tap dancing even proved beneficial when he used it as a fighting technique against a bully. \nBut all the jokes came at a hypocritical cost. The homophobia is excessive given that the story's main moral is the promotion of gay rights. It's wrong to have characters go shopping for stereotypical gay items one minute and then defend the entire gay community the next.\nAlso, Jessica Biel's character would have been much better if she didn't talk. Her acting was terrible; it was her body that got her the job. \nHer only useful contribution to the film was her underwear scene in the trailer. But her asininity was not completely her fault. Her character was lost in a small love story that was forced in between all the gay jokes. \nFans of Adam Sandler will love seeing him go back to his roots to make a movie worth seeing.

Get stories like this in your inbox
Subscribe