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I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Universal Pictures

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 37 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.1 out of 10
based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 69 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for crude sexual content throughout, nudity, language and drug references

Starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, and Richard Chamberlain

Chuck and Larry are the pride of their fire station: tow guy's guys always side-by-side and willing to do anything for each other. Grateful Chuck owes Larry his life, and Larry, a widower, calls in that favor big time when civic red tape prevents him from naming his own two kids as his life insurance beneficiaries. All Chuck has to do is claim to be Larry's domestic partner on some city forms. Easy. Nobody will ever know. But when an overzealous, spot checking bureaucrat becomes suspicious, the new couple's arrangement becomes a citywide issue and goes form confidential to the front page news. (Universal Pictures)


GENRE(S): Comedy  
WRITTEN BY: Lew Gallo (treatment)
Jim Taylor
Alexander Payne
Barry Fanaro
 
DIRECTED BY: Dennis Dugan  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: November 6, 2007 
Theatrical: July 20, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 140 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Funny in the juvenile, crass way we expect.
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice Nathan Lee
Tremendously savvy in its stupid way, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is as eloquent as "Brokeback Mountain," and even more radical.
Read Full Review
63
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Broad and badly made but sporadically inspired, "Chuck and Larry" is still an amazing improvement over "License to Wed," this month's other wedding comedy.
Read Full Review
60
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The curious thing here is that Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor rewrote this long-in-development screenplay. Yet the authors of such smart comedies as "Sideways," "About Schmidt" and "Citizen Ruth" can't move the film away from the world of easy laughs and sitcom jokes into a realm where sexual prejudices and presumptions get examined in a whimsical yet insightful manner.
Read Full Review
60
Variety Brian Lowry
The kind of buddy comedy Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau might have starred in 40 years ago, when the material would have felt less dated, if no less silly.
Read Full Review
60
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
If nothing else, Chuck & Larry should open up a whole new career path for the ineffably funny, unselfconsciously buck-naked Ving Rhames as an übermacho firefighter who’s been sitting on a little secret of his own.
Read Full Review
60
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Essentially, Chuck & Larry is an oafish chance for audiences to laugh at gay-bashing jokes and then feel morally redeemed for doing so -- courtesy of an obligatory wrap-up scene that reminds us that homosexuals are humans, too.
Read Full Review
50
ReelViews James Berardinelli
There's nothing here to appreciate for anyone who isn't a Sandler fan and, unfortunately, too little even for those who have dubbed themselves lifelong supporters.
Read Full Review
50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It's kind of like "Tootsie," only without the drag. Or the class. Or the laughs.
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50
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The film is half rutting goat, half preacher.
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50
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Directed with his usual flair for the obvious by Dennis Dugan ("The Benchwarmers), "Chuck and Larry" has the nowness factor of a Polish joke. Does anybody laugh at this stuff anymore?
Read Full Review
50
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
The moral of this crude, intermittently funny Adam Sandler comedy costarring the reliable Kevin James is that: It's OK to be gay, it's not OK to call someone a faggot, and it takes a real man to admit he loves his man pal.
Read Full Review
50
Newsweek David Ansen
If only the laughs were bigger, smarter and more frequent than they are.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Despite the fact that the movie covers some new cinematic territory, much of the humor feels recycled, mostly from the "Seinfeld" episodes "The Boyfriend" (the one where Jerry has a man crush on Keith Hernandez) and "The Outing."
Read Full Review
50
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Sporadically funny, casually sexist, blithely racist and about as visually sophisticated as a parking-garage surveillance video.
Read Full Review
50
Portland Oregonian Lisa Rose
The troubling thing about "Chuck & Larry" is the hypocrisy. It's a comedy that ridicules the people it's supposed to be championing.
Read Full Review
50
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
With its tepid gags and faltering pacing, may not be a very good movie. But at least, within its clumsiness, it strives for some kind of solidarity.
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50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kamal AL-Solaylee
Somewhere between its loutish humour and laudable sentiments are the traces of a good buddy movie that could, at the very least, have been harmless summer fun.
Read Full Review
42
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
If it doesn't look ridiculous now, try watching it again in a decade or three. Then it'll be funny for all the wrong reasons.
Read Full Review
42
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Myself, I felt victimized by the stereotype shtick of reliably grating Rob Schneider as a Canadian-Japanese wedding-chapel minister from SNL castoff hell. But maybe that's just because this movie encourages sensitivity by hitting everyone over the head with its humor hammer.
Read Full Review
40
Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
Fails to deliver on its main promise of big laughs, which is the film's truly unforgivable sin.
Read Full Review
38
USA Today Claudia Puig
A movie that gives marriage, homosexuality, friendship, firefighters, children and nearly everything else a bad name.
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38
TV Guide Ken Fox
In what can only be described as a throwback to the awkward "gay" farces of the 1970s and '80s -- think "The Ritz" and "Partners -- this painfully uncomfortable buddy comedy trips all over itself to say something positive while still managing to offend. Worse still, it's just not funny.
Read Full Review
38
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Plays like some uninformed seventh-grader's view of gay men.
Read Full Review
33
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Formulaic 'Chuck & Larry' is a crass, unfulfilling effort.
Read Full Review
25
New York Post Kyle Smith
The movie isn't insulting to homosexuals but to comedy.
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25
Premiere Aaron Hillis
So go on, pay your ten bucks and get your hate on.
Read Full Review
25
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
No comedy this year can beat this dud for mealy-mouthed hypocrisy.
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10
Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman
In under two hours, the synthetic, insufferable I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry manages to insult gays, straights, men, women, children, African-Americans, Asians, pastors, mailmen, insurance adjusters, firemen, doctors -- and fans of show music. That's championship stuff.
Read Full Review
10
Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
So remarkably free of laughs I might as well have been watching John Wayne Gacy’s home movies.
Read Full Review
0
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Comedy that seems designed to be as bad as it can be.
Read Full Review
0
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
More than anything Chuck and Larry shows just how flaccid American movie comedy has become now that "Saturday Night Live" has replaced vaudeville as our comedy college.
Read Full Review
0
Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton
A movie full of weak moments, contrived to the point of painful.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 5.1 (out of 10) based on 69 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

A. Nonymous gave it a0:
Crass, banal and incompetent. Typical Sandler trash. The only reason this movie received any good Crits was because it was jumping on the "Gay Rights" bandwagon, in an attempt to hide what was just an immature cheap shot at homosexual jokes.

Draque gave it a0:
I'm curious how many people who claim this movie isn't offensive are anything *other* than straight, white, American males. if you were to make a movie that starred two white guys cracking jokes about black people are lazy, shiftless and eat nothing but watermelons and fried chicken, then turn around at the end and say "No seriously. Black people are ok in my book" with a huge, shit eating grin on my face, you would have succeeded in making a movie as hypocritical as Chuck and Lary. Seeing as that movie would only be offensive to a single minority however, it could not stand up against the pure repugnance of the racism, sexism, homophobia and over-the-top stereotyping of every minority you can imagine. To Adam Sandler: We get that you're straight. You don't need to take every scene in which you are present to remind us of that. No one even *wants* you to be gay. In particular, gay people are glad you're not.

Peter J. gave it a2:
Let me first say that I enjoy Adam Sandler movies for the most part and find them an enjoyable entertainment experience. However, not this particular movie. My wife and I actually had to turn off the movie after the 1 hour mark. We could not take it any longer. There was nothing funny at all. The jokes were beyond abysmal and Kevin James and Sandler do not mesh well at all. I am going to give Adam a free pass this one time, but I will be leary when the next one comes out...

John P. gave it a1:
Adam Sandler has had some hits and misses, Kevin James really should have known better. This movie without a doubt makes the likes of Dumb & Dumber, Porkys and American Pie look like a Merchant Ivory production. How can such bowel movements make it to DVD let alone the big screen?? I'm in complete shock that Alexander Payne was involved in this infantile mental masturbation of a mess. Shameful waste of talent.

Jimmy R gave it a0:
Come on guys, this IS offensive. The gay deceivers, made nearly 40 yrs ago, was the same plot, but way funnier, and a whole lot less offensive. despite the good-hearted message-moment at the end [after a feature's worth of cheesy jokes at the expense of gay people], the two leads are sweet but misguided, and i just wish this movie hadn't been made at all. it makes me sad.

Jason A gave it an8:
I don't agree with the critics or many of the user reviews at all. I found it funny if you take the jokes on homosexuals as what they are : jokes, and not take them to heart or seriously because after all, it's a comedy, not a documentary on homosexuals. I thought it was hilarious all the way through even though, i usually find Sandler a bad actor. The only disappointment is Sandler's typical predictable ending that end up tend to be really corny.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
GO SEE THIS MOVIE I'm 100% straight and laughed aloud many times during this movie along with everyone else there. Don't listen to critics go see it and i assure you you will laugh to..... if you don't maybe you should call to see a shrink on the way home.

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