Thanks to Reign Over Me, the sour taste Adam Sandler’s Click left in my mouth was alleviated, but it didn’t take long for Adam to take another stab at assaulting my funny bone as the gay themed comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry makes its way to theaters. Starring alongside overweight funnyman Kevin James, Chuck and Larry has its funny moments, but it takes too few chances to really make you laugh out loud.
Sandler and James star as Chuck and Larry respectively. Chuck and Larry are firemen working in New York have been best friends forever, both straight as can be, but that image is about to change. Larry’s wife passed away a few years back and due to grief he never changed the beneficiary on his pension plan and has now missed his chance. This means his children will be left with nothing. Thanks to these unfortunate restrictions Larry is forced to search for a loophole and finds one requiring a favor of the biggest kind from Chuck, his hand in marriage. This arrangement will allow him to name Chuck as the primary beneficiary and ultimately take care of his children should the worst come to pass.
As funny as the trailers may look, this film never really pushes the comedic envelope as it definitely should. Chuck and Larry is far too watered down to really deliver the gut busters. Yeah, it’s funny to hear James say, “Yeah, we’re big-time fruits,” in the trailer, but it doesn’t ever get any better than that. The dilemmas Chuck faces in walking the line between helping his friend and his urge to hook up with Alex played by the smoking hot Jessica Biel is understandable, but it is never really funny. The film has far too much drama and just day-to-day silliness.
Comedy has changed to the point that we expect movies like Wedding Crashers, 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up style humor to make us laugh. I am not saying Chuck and Larry had to tread into R-rated waters, but Hairspray (also opening this weekend) has more risque humor than this one and it deals with the far more touchy subject of race rather than gay relationships.
Chuck and Larry will make middle aged mothers chuckle, but outside of the Oprah watching fan base this film isn’t going to garner the same kind of love most Sandler films enjoy.
