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I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)

Director: Dennis Dugan

1

Time Out rating

Average user rating
40 reviews

Synopsis

Firemen Chuck and Larry are best friends willing to do anything for each other, so much so that when civic red tape prevents Larry from naming his own two kids as his life insurance beneficiaries, Chuck agrees to bend the rules and pretend to be his domestic partner on some city forms. But when a local bureaucrat becomes suspicious, the new couple’s arrangement turn into a citywide issue. Forced to improvise as love-struck newlyweds, Chuck and Larry must pretend to be living a life of domestic bliss under the same roof.

Movie review

From Time Out London

New York firefighter Chuck (Adam Sandler) agrees to enter into a civil partnership with his widowed crewmate Larry (Kevin James) so the latter can ensure his benefits are passed on to his children. It’s a set-up as muddled as the sexual politics of this mortifying would-be comedy, in which homosexuality is equated with femininity, femininity with breasts and virtue with a mean right hook. There are also lame fat gags and a comedy Japanese man of the sort that you thought had gone out with ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’.

Facing a ‘Green Card’-style state investigation of their relationship (cue smokin’ hot lawyer Jessica Biel), Chuck and Larry become a cause célèbre in the supposed name of gay rights, fighting to win over their colleagues and the system. There are one or two neat ribbings of homophobia, including a shower-room soap-dropping scene filmed like ‘Jaws’, but given the mincing, minstrelised characterisations, you’d be excused for thinking no one involved in this had ever actually met a real, live homo.

The film is actually a paean to male friendship with a severe case of gay panic: its leads can declare their love for one another but the thought of a kiss inspires revulsion. (There’s less man-on-man action here than in ‘Philadelphia’.) That said, the lengths to which the picture goes to establish Chuck’s world-beating red-bloodedness – if he’s not fielding hundredweights of porn, he’s fighting off nympho twins – smacks of nothing so much as the closet.

Author: Ben Walters 2007-09-17 16:31:47

Time Out London Issue 1935: September 19-25


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User reviews of this film

  • lauren said...
    Posted on Oct 06 2007 15:52 i havent seen the film yet but off to see it just takin mickey out of ppl that are sayin that if u avent seen the film dont rite a rivew
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  • Loe said...
    Posted on Oct 06 2007 14:33 Very funny....:D... I would definately give this a full rating.
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  • alison said...
    Posted on Oct 06 2007 14:04 was an ok film, sandlers done better but he still rocks!!
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  • Bethany Wyatt said...
    Posted on Oct 05 2007 10:38 Very simple story, very easy to watch beacouse you don't have to think very hard.
    Happy ever after ending.
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  • kt said...
    Posted on Oct 04 2007 15:25 nothin wid adam sandler in it can be rubbish
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  • christie said...
    Posted on Oct 04 2007 14:15 i mean 6
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  • christie said...
    Posted on Oct 04 2007 14:14 5 star btw
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  • Drew said...
    Posted on Oct 03 2007 18:43 i went with my best friend (andy) and felt awkward throughout as the constant referral to 'FAGGOTS' was not needed. overall-3 out of 6 stars. xxxxxxxx
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  • Nah said...
    Posted on Oct 03 2007 18:31 Well I went to see this film and I thought that i accurately potrayed a gay mans trouble and strife against the modern day homophobe with a few rib ticklers in there aswell.
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  • sam said...
    Posted on Oct 03 2007 10:44 this film is lame
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  • leah said...
    Posted on Sep 30 2007 15:20 this film is worth watchin!!
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  • danny07 said...
    Posted on Sep 30 2007 10:32 i aint seen the film yet but it sounds amazin i hope its as good as its ment to be if its not then they should be ashamed on there selfs because the trailers look so good or they are just showing the good parts that actually in the film any ways im goin 2 c it 2day.
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  • Michael J said...
    Posted on Sep 29 2007 11:47 ITS GOOD
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  • Jayne said...
    Posted on Sep 29 2007 09:29 It s gonna be mint avent saw it yet but goin l8a 2day sounds funi lol well goin 2 c it i hope its wot i'm expecting it 2 b!
    Report as inappropriate
  • P.J.Durkan said...
    Posted on Sep 28 2007 10:54 Perfect for the early King of Queens generation.Unfortunatly that is where this belongs.Ps am a King of Queens fan.
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