No two ways about it, I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry is extraordinary.
It's extraordinary that a film can have virtually no redeeming value; that it can be so staggeringly unfunny and offensive in the name of comedy and tolerance; that it was a hit in the US when it should've been run out of town by people with pitchforks and flaming torches.
Some have said I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry is a rip-off of the 2004 Aussie film Strange Bedfellows and there are broad similarities.
Chuck and Larry are firemen who pose as gay in order to safeguard Larry's insurance benefits. Steve Buscemi's investigator is out to prove they're faking it.
Jessica Biel is the boys' liberal lawyer who's also, of course, a smokin' hottie who'll test Larry's commitment to the fake-gay lifestyle.
For all its flaws Strange Bedfellows at least had heart and a few chuckles. I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry is just mean, moronic and manipulative.
Regularly misogynistic, racist and homophobic, it also insults the overweight, the homeless, the dead, the grieving, and the mentally ill.
Anti-PC humour can be hilarious when it's clever, this is just nasty and stupid.
But I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry is even worse when it tries to be touchy-feely. It patronises the gay community as weak sissies while assuming the audience needs a tolerance lesson.
Adam Sandler clearly thinks it's enough for him to turn up to set and mumble. He's charmless, a fact compounded by Sandler the producer casting Sandler the actor as a ladies man who beds six bimbos at a time.
Dream on.
Kevin James and Jessica Biel do their best with characters who have room temperature IQs. Rob Schneider and David Spade hit new lows – that's really saying something – while Steve Buscemi should've known better.
Most disappointing is that two of the three film writers were Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, the team who gave us the sublime Sideways, About Schmidt and Election.
At least the cinematography's in focus. I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry scrapes together one star.
