5 Fascinating Things About "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry"

"Fascinating" may be pushing it. How about interesting? Notable? Would you believe "things that aren't totally dull?"



The fact is, when something is expiring on Netflix, all of a sudden, I feel the urge to see it, even if it's something I don't think I will particularly like. Case in point: I Now Pronounce You Chuck and larry, the Adam Sandler/Kevin James "pretend to be a gay couple to get benefits" movie that really seems like it's from a different era. In fact it is--all the way from 2007!

This movie isn't necessarily "on brand" for me, but I did chuckle a few times. Here are 5 things that stand out to me after seeing it for the first time:

*Dennis Dugan cameo: Dennis Dugan may always be Richie Brockelman, or at least staple of late 1970s TV,  to a large segment of the populace, but he has this long connection with Sandler. I can't help but wonder, how does Dugan pick his spots? Is he like, "OK, this case worker is a great little part. I gotta do this"?

*Gary Valentine is in it: What is the deal with Gary Valentine, a poor man's Kevin James who keeps turning up in projects in which he A) appears with Kevin James yet B) is not related to Kevin James.

(Brief pause for research)

Oh, wait, he's Kevin James' brother! Well, that makes partial sense. Yet he played James' cousin in King of Queens, and in Chuck and Larry, he is not in any way related to Chuck--or is it Larry? I still don't know.

Actually, I don't know if they shared any shots, which almost makes it worse. In one early scene, Sandler's and James' firefighter characters are on their way to a blaze with their crew, and as everyone banters on the truck, Sandler suddenly addresses Valentine, and the shot of Kevin's bro jars and confuses me.

I forgot that the guy kept turning up in his bro's projects, so for a minute I thought James' character had grown a mustache while on the way to the fire. I mean, it's really distracting to have he and James in the same movie and not be related or not have the resemblance noted. Maybe this is an intentional rib done on the audience?

*Pointless "Asian" cameo by Rob Schneider: Speaking of the cronies who turn up in these movies, Rob Schneider "spices up" the narrative by playing an Asian gentleman who performs the marriage ceremony for Chuck and Larry. The character is Asian for no other reason, apparently, than to let Schneider do an over-the-top dialect. I mean, it's not like Sandler's buddy IS Asian, is he?

(Brief pause for research)

According to Wikipedia: "Schneider's maternal grandmother was a Filipina who met and married his grandfather, a white American army private, while he was stationed in the Philippines"

Hmm. I guess...that makes it OK? It's like they decided, "The gay stuff isn't offensive enough because we ultimately come down hard on the side of tolerance and acceptance. We gotta throw something else in there."

*Fetishization of Jessica Biel's body: Hey, I'm not complaining. I did find it fascinating. Let's again go to Mind of the Filmmakers Theatre: "No straight guy is gonna want to go see this unless we have shots of Jessica Biel undressing in the trailer. Then every straight guy is gonna want to go see this."

*Sandler as a chick magnet: This may be the single most offensive aspect of the entire film. Forget the whole theme of the movie, including the gay jokes; forget Schneider's--well, his entire performance; forget everything, really. Sandler's character is some kind of super stud right from the beginning of the movie, when two hot twins fight over him. Soon afterwards, he takes a bevy of Hooters girls back to his place and clearly has them mesmerized by his raw sexual machismo.

I guess it's good to call the shots in your movies. This whole scenario threw me so much I never could explore the sociopolitical angles of the gay marriage storyline.