I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Funny in the juvenile, crass way we expect.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's kind of like "Tootsie," only without the drag. Or the class. Or the laughs.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The film is half rutting goat, half preacher.

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?

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.

Newsweek David Ansen

If only the laughs were bigger, smarter and more frequent than they are.

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."

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Sporadically funny, casually sexist, blithely racist and about as visually sophisticated as a parking-garage surveillance video.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Fails to deliver on its main promise of big laughs, which is the film's truly unforgivable sin.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A movie that gives marriage, homosexuality, friendship, firefighters, children and nearly everything else a bad name.

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.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Plays like some uninformed seventh-grader's view of gay men.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Formulaic 'Chuck & Larry' is a crass, unfulfilling effort.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The movie isn't insulting to homosexuals but to comedy.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

So go on, pay your ten bucks and get your hate on.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

No comedy this year can beat this dud for mealy-mouthed hypocrisy.

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.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

So remarkably free of laughs I might as well have been watching John Wayne Gacy’s home movies.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Comedy that seems designed to be as bad as it can be.

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.

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

A movie full of weak moments, contrived to the point of painful.