Longtime message board readers will know my position on gay marriage – yes. Not civil unions, not something “like” marriage, but marriage for all people. At least until Adam Sandler wanted in on it. Now I oppose gay marriage.
Sandler and Kevin James, the *ahem* King of Queens, are starring in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, a gay marriage comedy. In the film the two men are firefighters (football player, firefighter – I love how Sandler keeps throwing himself into tough roles) who pretend to be married so they can get their department’s civil union benefits.
First of all, I would sort of be behind this if it was a sitcom, because that’s about the level of the concept. It’s like Three’s Company without the women. But second of all is my undying hate of Adam Sandler, and my ongoing irritation with Kevin James, one of those guys who seems to have made it in life as a comedian without actually bothering to get funny first.
Chuck and Larry is being directed by David Dobkin, who helmed The Wedding Crashers. Interestingly, I don’t think that’s a good thing – to me that film worked despite the pedestrian direction and the uneven pacing, all based on the chemistry of the leads. Once upon a time Will Smith and James Gandolfini were going to star, and that’s a movie I would certainly run to see.
Sandler is making Chuck and Larry after he does Reign O’er Me, a serious post-9/11 film, which I have been assured is just as awful as you think it would be. Oh Adam, look at you getting all timely on us.
The one thing about this movie that interests me is how the topic of gay marriage – or more pussily, civil unions – is going to be handled. Will our two men learn that there are serious reasons that gays want to be married? Or is it just going to be a lame scenario where they fall in love with girls who think they’re gay and have to win them over and learn to come clean?