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Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, Steve Buscemi, Dan Aykroyd

Director: Dennis Dugan

Writer(s): Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, Barry Fanaro

Studio: Universal

Rating: PG-13

Official Bar Score: 

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is a hilarious comedy about two firefighters, ultra-masculine lady’s man Chuck Levine (Adam Sandler) and single parent Larry Valentine (Kevin James) who deceive their pension department by pretending to be a gay couple to prevent Valentine’s hard-earned money from disappearing in the event of his death. Due to a legal technicality, widower Valentine needed to be either married or in a domestic partnership in order for his children benefit from his pension. (If you rearrange pension it spells “on penis”. Coincidence? Maybe.) Best friend Levine, a.k.a. Mr. February, reluctantly steps up to the plate and helps Valentine convince their gay-friendly lawyer, Alex (Jessica Biel), and dumpster-diving bureaucrat (Steve Buscemi) that in fact, they truly are a legitimate gay couple. Chuck instantly is attracted to the lawyer (with reason) and such, threatens the whole scheme throughout the movie.

The charade starts off with small changes, such as changing Levine’s mailing address to Valentines address (the normal XXL condoms, full blow up dolls, and pornographic magazines) and escalate to a much grander scale as the heat from the doubters increases. They get married in a small chapel in Las Vegas, go to a gay pride fund raiser, sleep in the same bed, and go shopping to insure they have enough “gay” products in the home. (i.e. Barbara Streisand cds, lubricants, and Q-tips- authors note: I had nooo idea Q-tips are for homosexuals. I’ve been using them for years without concern of my sexual preference). They work hard keeping the scheme as real as possible, even to their fellow firefighters and fire chief (Dan Akroyd) until they had their “day in court” . The ending was a pretty standard Happy Madison ending: big scene (courtroom), big crowd (supporters and protesters of the gay couple), and a big dramatic speech (Akroyd). Similar to the endings of Mr. Deeds & Big Daddy.

If you like Happy Madison movies, this has all you’re used to and all you’d expect. The gang’s all there as fellow firefighters, gay activists, and gay protesters. You might expect the movie to be offensive to gay viewers and although there were the typical gay stereotypes, the overtone of the movie was pro gay and promotes tolerance toward the gay community. For the homophobic movie watchers out there, it’s PG-13, so the most you see is a few male butts. For the same viewers, there is a scene where they managed some PG erotica with Jessica Biel coming in out of the rain and stripping in front of her “gal pal” Levine, who gets to squeeze Biel’s breasts to test if they’re real (no doubt the highlight of Sandler’s career). It was pretty fast paced, offered some laughs, and would be recommended as a good cuddle-on-the-couch date rental. As a final overview: Happy Gilmore>Chuck and Larry>Little Nicky.

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