New York firefighters Chuck and Larry live different lives. Whilst Chuck is a self-confessed lothario out for a good time, Larry is a widower struggling to keep a regular home life for the sake of his two young children. With Larry taking up life as a single parent and dealing with his loss, he forgets to change the primary beneficiary of his pension from his wife to his children before the cut-off date, which would financially protect them in the event of a work injury. The only solution is to get married again, but he can't think of another woman he can trust. Reading an article on civil partnerships, Larry hits on the idea to ask Chuck if they can go through a sham of a marriage for the sake of Larry's children...

Adam Sandler: the Steve Guttenberg of his generation. I have to admit that I've only found one of his movies worth a repeat viewing: The Wedding Singer. The rest of his films are predictable, infantile and generally sees him star as pretty unlikable characters.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry has potential. The idea that US law is so ludicrous that a man has more rights for his kids if he's married to someone who is not their mother than he does being a single father is just crazy. The movie had a chance to tackle this archaic law with some subtle comedy. What the writers do is smash every inch of subtlety and go for a balls out attempt at offending everyone by delivering pathetic stereotypical two-dimensional characters. Whether this was by design or ineptitude is not clear, but it matters not. The movie is designed to ensure the thickest of thickos can understand the plot.

Kevin James is the only actor here who nearly pulls it off... but he has to be seen to be doing very laddish things. Adam Sandler is even more over the top in that he has a constant stream of women in his bedroom, all eager to please him. This, no doubt, is the set up to ensure that even the most knuckle scrapping member of the audience realise that the two main characters are straight and just pretending to be gay in order to ensure that Larry Valentine's (James) kids will receive his life assurance payout if he is killed in the line of duty.

The two are closer than most married couples are anyway - both watching each others backs every day in their job as New York firemen. But for Larry to ask Chuck (Sandler) to pretend to be his husband, through a sham of a civil partnership, tests their close bond. The two have to "learn to act gay" as they are such manly men... and this is where a lot of the comedy (?) comes from.

For extras we only get two audio commentaries. The first, and weakest, is with Sandler, James and director Dennis Dugan. It's full of lads talk and in-jokes that no one not on set will get. The second commentary is with Dugan and is a lot more interesting.

If you're a Sandler fan, then you'll guffaw your lungs up at this nonsense. Everyone else should give this one a wide berth.

3

Nick Smithson